Mathematics in Prime-Time Television: The Story of Fun and Games

Summary

FROM IDEA TO TRANSMISSION

Yorkshire Television, one of the larger independent television companies in the U.K., is well known for programmes popularising science. In October 1986, the science department came up with the idea to try to popularise mathematics in a similar manner. As Duncan Dallas, the head of the science department, wrote “As a kamikaze notion it could hardly be better … (Mathematics) is the least popular or accessible of the sciences. It does not sell magazines in the same way as computing, it is not the subject of dinner party conversations as is ecology, nor is it a trendy part of our life style like technology. Indeed, it is universally acceptable to trumpet our ignorance whenever the subject is mentioned. Clearly mathematics is important enough to command our attention but on a list of programme ideas rated by popularity it will probably become bottom” (Dallas 1988).

The crucial question was to find a format, a way into the mathematical perspective that would be entertaining and lively. After considerable discussion, Yorkshire Television came up with the idea to base the programme around puzzles and games. The rationale was to capitalize on people's interest in puzzles, an interest which goes back for many years, and to use these puzzles as a vehicle to think about the embedded mathematical ideas - after all recreational mathematics has been the source of a great deal of mainstream mathematics.