Tomorrow’s World

1 9 6 5 – 2 0 0 3 (UK)
1,100 x 30 minute episodes

First broadcast on 7 July 1965, Tomorrow’s World was designed to showcase scientific invention, and there are two main reasons why so many viewers tuned in.

One was in the hope that one of the live experiments would go wrong (they frequently did), and the other was because, for many years, it was on immediately before Top of the Pops. So youngsters would plough through Raymond Baxter just to get to T. Rex or Slade.

Baxter, a former WWII pilot, was the mainstay of the show for 12 years, but in 1977 he left, having fallen foul of new young editor Michael Blakstad, who had described Baxter as ‘the last of the dinosaurs’.

Baxter allegedly commented that he couldn’t work with someone who rode a bicycle to work.

Other presenters included James Burke, Su Ingle, Michael Rodd, Maggie Philbin, Judith Hann, Kieran Prendiville, Peter Macann, Howard Stableford and Anna Ford.

Anna joined in 1977, but no less than six months later, after stating that she had “no wish to be a public figure”, she departed to ITN and fame as their first female newsreader.

Some of the new technologies introduced on the show, which subsequently became commonplace, included the breathalyser (1967), home computers (1967), artificial grass (1968), pocket calculators (1971), the digital watch (1972), Teletext/Ceefax (1974), mobile phones (1979),
compact discs and CD players (1981), and the Camcorder (1981).

The show also gave the German group Kraftwerk their first British television exposure, with the band performing their then-forthcoming single Autobahn as part of an item about the use of technology in music-making.

One of the most awkward situations on Tomorrow’s World occurred when a lady demonstrated a new portable bath. In the best BBC tradition, she was suitably concealed with bubbles – until the heat from the studio lights began to melt the foam.

By the late 1990s, the live studio demonstrations were dropped in favour of purely pre-recorded items. The final series, presented by Adam Hart-Davis, Kate Humble and Roger Black, attempted to revert to the original live format of the show, even using a remix of one of the theme tunes used during its more successful years.

But ratings continued to fall, and – with only three million viewers in the last series – the BBC decided to axe the show.

The BBC announced in 2007 that the Tomorrow’s World brand would be used on science and technology news reports across their TV, radio and internet services.

Presenters
Raymond Baxter (1965–1977)
James Burke (1965–1971)
John Parry (1968–1971)
William Woollard (1970–1979)
Michael Rodd (1971–1995)
Judith Hann (1975–1994)
Anna Ford (1977–1979)
Kieran Prendiville (1978–1985)
Su Ingle (1979–1982)
Peter Macann (1982–1991)
Maggie Philbin (1982–1995)
Howard Stableford (1985–2002)
Bob Symes (1985–1994)
Anna Walker (1988)
Kate Bellingham (1990–1994)
Carmen Pryce (1991–1994)
John Diamond (1991–1992)
Shahnaz Pakravan (1994–1996)
Vivienne Parry (1994–1996)
Monty Don (1994–1995)
Rebecca Stephens (1994–1996)
Carol Vorderman (1994–1995)
Richard Mabey (1995)
Jez Nelson (1995–2000)
Philippa Forrester (1995–2000)
Peter Snow (1997–2000)
Anya Sitaram (1998–2000)
Nick Baker (1999–2000)
Lindsey Fallow (1999–2000)
Sophie Raworth (1999–2000)
Katie Knapman (2002)
David Bull (2002–2003)
Adam Hart-Davis (2002–2003)
Roger Black (2003)
Kate Humble (2003)

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