Something else that annoys me...

[philmophlegm]

That last one was at least rational. This one, I freely admit is completely irrational:


The physicist Brian Cox annoys me.

It's the weird lips. It's the poor dress sense. It's the Manc accent*. It's the condescending presentation style where everything is amazing. It's the inescapable association of him with John Prescott dancing.

Aaarrrggghhhh!


I have a powerful fear that when Sir Patrick Moore dies Cox will take over on The Sky at Night. (And if you've seen TSAN recently, you may well share my fear that the great man is nearing the end - he didn't look at all well on the last edition.)



* I have a similar irrational dislike of Mick Hucknall, so possibly I have a thing about Manc accents.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I had hoped that the heir apparent to The Sky at Night was Brian May, but I'd read that the BBC were considering an entirely new astronomy programme to replace The Sky at Night, to be presented by Cox.

The Sky at Night anniversary programme a few years ago envisaged a future programme being presented by a hologram of Moore's head, representing his consciousness which he uploaded before death into a BBC computer!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd love to see Dr May do it. For one thing despite the small career change to rock god, his academic subject is closer to astronomy than Cox's. For another, although he does have bad hair, it's still not as bad as Cox's.

The existing co-presenter is good, but probably not charismatic enough. Myleene Klass is apparently a proper amateur astronomer and much better looking than Brian Cox, but I think the programme should have a pro astronomer as presenter. Heather Cooper was once probably the heir apparent, but here star seems to have faded.

The hologram of Moore's head idea sounds exactly like the early 90s Channel 4 gaming programme 'Gamesmaster' in which said disembodied head gave out game tips.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

My lack of television watching (other than Doctor Who and CBeebies) for the last several years has put me out of the loop, since last time I really paid attention was in the Heather Cooper era. But fwiw I'd go with Brian May too, I am used to ignoring bad hair on television (eg 10th Doctor's got increasingly out of hand, and as for Iggle Piggle...) and he has the necessary charisma as well as ability. I don't dislike Myleene Klass but I agree that the increasinly amateurisation of certain supposedly scientific programming is an unfortunate trend (albeit one that has been going for a long time, see Tony Robinson and Bill Oddie.)

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

You should hear the astronomers on my Facebook and Twitter streams ranting about Cox. Ignoring the appearance aspects apparently he simply isn't sufficiently clued up about astronomy, and or is prepared to talk crap science for money.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's not just me then. I'm not altogether surprised - astronomy must be one of the fastest moving of all sciences with new discoveries all the time. Cox isn't an astronomer and presumably has other academic interests he has to keep on top of.