The Sky at Night faces BBC axe

http://www.theguardian.com/media/201...xe?INTCMP=SRCH


The Sky at Night faces BBC axe

BBC to review future of astronomy show – first broadcast in 1957 – less
than a year after the death of Sir Patrick Moore

One of the BBC's longest-running TV shows, The Sky at Night, faces the
axe less than a year after the death of the man who made it famous, Sir
Patrick Moore.

The future of the series, which first aired in 1957, will be reviewed at
the end of the year, prompting an angry protest from fans on Twitter and
an online petition that had attracted more than 2,000 signatures by
Tuesday morning.

The Sky at Night is now presented by cosmologists Lucie Green and Chris
Lintott following Moore's death in December last year, aged 89. It now
airs once a month, in a late-night slot on BBC1 and later on BBC4.

Moore presented a total of 721 episodes, only ever missing one
broadcast, in July 2004, after he suffered food poisoning.

A BBC spokesman said: "Sky at Night is on air until the end of the year.
Plans for subsequent series are being discussed."

As well as looking into space, discussing everything from comets to
quasars, the show covered the 1999 solar eclipse and the Apollo moon
landings of 1969. It has featured interviews with Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin, and author Arthur C Clarke.

The last episode, which looked at black holes, was watched by 202,000
viewers on BBC4, a 1% share of the audience. Although small compared to
the audiences who watch peak-time programmes on BBC1 and ITV, it is a
not insubstantial audience for BBC4.

Next month's programme will feature a "Moore moon marathon" and will be
filmed on 18 October, the night of the penumbral eclipse.

Disgruntled viewers took to Twitter and an online petition, where one
unhappy fan, Alan Fleming, wrote: "An absolute disgrace to axe this
show. I have been watching this since the 1970s. I am not a minority
market, I don't even own a telescope but as many others have mentioned
here, it is the education and entertainment of this show which is
important."

Another, John Hunt, said: "The Sky at Night inspired me as a child to
become a scientist, now I'm a university professor who regards [it] as a
vital part of science out-reach and public education."

Astronomy shows have been a big hit for BBC2 in recent years, with
Stargazing Live presented by Professor Brian Cox, one of the BBC's
biggest stars, and Dara O Briain, which was credited with generating a
boom in interest in astronomy.

The Sky at Night is one of the BBC's longest running TV shows, its
longevity eclipsed by current affairs show Panorama, which began four
years earlier, in 1953.

Public science talks / Southampton
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