Two well-worth-reading articles by Gia Milinovich (whose work I’ve read and enjoyed long before I knew who this ‘Brian Cox’ fellow was – she inspired me to see about getting a proper photograph done of myself for the website! :p):
From The lady vanishes: Invisible Wife Syndrome (The Guardian):
When we first met, I was the expensively groomed television professional, working on mostly science and technology shows, and he was the newly appointed physics academic with a student’s wardrobe and a single bed. All that remained of his music days with D:Ream were a few William Hunt suits in his wardrobe and framed backstage passes on his bathroom wall. It may have been my love of the Apollo moon missions or him telling me he worked at Cern, but we instantly struck up a geeky friendship. Together we started writing ambitious documentary ideas with the sole aim of “making science part of popular culture”. Fast-forward 10 years and we’re a lot closer to our goal, but it’s not quite how I imagined it would be.
When Brian first started appearing on TV, he was more of a cult figure than a celebrity. People would occasionally come up to him with a question about black holes or the Higgs boson, having seen him on Horizon or This Morning. The only time he was asked for his autograph was after a talk he’d given in a school, or occasionally at a nerd gathering such as Skeptics In The Pub. Then he presented Wonders Of The Solar System and everything changed.
From In the exit stairwell of fame (Parent Dish):
The other night we attended a screening of one of his programmes to a sold-out audience filled with adoring young women. After the screening, there was a Q & A. I’d seen the programme many times so all I wanted to see was the Q & A. Our son luckily fell asleep in my arms just before the screening, so slept peacefully during it. The moment it ended, however, he woke up. As my husband sat down on stage, our son shouted out… So I left the auditorium and spent the next hour sitting with my son in the exit stairwell. And all I could think of was what a perfect analogy it was…
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I read the last article – very revealing. Thanks for introducing me to Gia
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