BBC gives Vavilov his due

Trapped in Italy, it can be annoying to discover that a television programme that people recommend is not available in my country. Others’ too, I imagine. So I feel justified in sharing a segment from the final episode of the series Botany: A Blooming History. The episode traced the history of plant genetics; a nice straight line from Mendel, through William Bateson, Nikolay Vavilov, Norman Borlaug, Barbara McClintock to Jane Langdale. (Who she? you ask. Good question. Better one; why was she included in the show?)

This is not the place to critique the programme, which did play fast and loose with the truth on occasion. However, I do think the series would make a fascinating case study for scientists who think that television “ought” to do more about their field. I’d love to sit in on a chat among the series’ producers, the presenter, Timothy Walker ^[1], and scientists who know the field, to hear about the choices that were considered, adopted, rejected. Setting aside my own prejudices, I think they did a fine job, but …

1. whose glorious job title — Horti Praefectus of Oxford Botanic Garden — was, I learn, renamed ‘Director’ in 2002. Taxonomists will be glad to know that “the Latin synonym remains valid”. [↩]