Season 6

1985 · 13 episodes

Episodes

1The Science of Sexual AttractionPoets have written about it, songwriters sung about it, but what do scientists say about the intimate process of boy meets girl? Q.E.D. looks at the ways they have been investigating the first magic moments of attraction between the sexes. What's the primary thing we look for in the opposite sex? Are men and women attracted differently? How far do personality differences affect our choices? Why are men and women's bodies so unalike? What's the best opening gambit? And might we be turned on by people's smell? All this and more in a dispassionate appraisal of our more passionate feelings.
2The Magic Picture ShowHow do you like your Kenny Everett ? Stirred or shaken? Spun or mangled? Or powdered and squirted clean off the screen? Kenny explores the electronic Aladdin's cave of computerised video wizardry where TV pictures already spin, flip and perform gymnastic exercises. Where will it end? A peep behind the scenes of TV production reveals many secrets, including the video game that could plug the experiences of a lifetime straight into your eyeballs!
3The 300 Million Years WarMinefields, poison gas, hired mercenaries, early-warning systems - it's no holds barred in the never-ending battle between two of nature's superpowers: the insects and the plants. Q.E.D. uncovers a microscopic world of conflict where thousands of insects lay siege to a single tree. Unable to move, plants retaliate with their arsenal of chemical weapons. There are few clear victories, but one thing is certain - plants are not pacifists.
4The Long Watch: Fifty Years of Radart all began 50 years ago in a muddy field in Northamptonshire with three scientists, an RAF bomber and a borrowed BBC short-wave transmitter. The experiment was to lead to the radar which won the Battle of Britain and defeated the U-boats in the Atlantic. Today civil airlines could not operate without it, neither could the space programme. Radar also forms NATO's first line of defence in the cold war; it has come a long way from that muddy field.
5A Race Against TimeBy risking life and limb, Austrian downhiller Franz Klammer has had one of the most successful careers of any ski-racer. But now that daredevil Franz is over 30 and has injured his knees and back, it is harder than ever to win. Last autumn, in the build-up to this year's World Cup, he revealed to Q.E.D. how he depends on new technology to get him up to speeds of over 80 mph. At the first treacherous and icy race in Italy, Q.E.D. was there to see if science could help him pull off another victory against the odds.
6The Body in the BogHow would you feel if you found a foot in your machinery at work? For peat-cutter Eddie Slack , 'it was terrible'. But for Britain's archaeologists it was tremendously exciting. It turned out to be the preserved foot of a 2,500-year-old Iron Age man. With Q.E.D.'s cameramen looking over their shoulders, a team led by Dr Ian Stead uncovered elbows, arm, fingernails, a ginger moustache and beard, neatly clipped. Then they found a garrotte around his neck. Was it a mugging or ritual sacrifice? What was his last meal? What could modern technology reveal about the prehistoric murder victim?
7Riddles of Ball and CueAll the things you never realised you wanted to know about snooker - such as why a straight shot can be rolling in both directions, and why playing from one end of the table is different from playing from the other. Steve Davis , the World Champion, takes on Peter Lawrenson , a scientist. With the help of slow-motion cameras, specially marked balls, an executive toy, some coins, a computer and even an electric drill, their unusual contest offers some unexpected revelations.
8Operation OtterThere's a battle going on in the English countryside, a fight to save one of the most beautiful and intelligent wild animals -the otter. Operation Otter meant releasing otters born and bred in captivity into the wild, struggling to make the wild safe for them and hoping against hope they would breed. The four strategists in this modem Noah's Ark operation soon found that monitoring the success of their campaign was fraught with problems ...
9Another Little Drink Won't Do Us Any HarmWould you be concerned if someone you loved was drinking an average of two pints of bitter a day? Or do you believe the old saying that 'another little drink won't do us any harm ? You might be more uneasy it the someone in your life was your 15-year-old daughter. Through the revealing attitudes of teenagers and their parents, Q.E.D. discovers how little all of us understand about alcohol -the third-biggest health hazard in Britain-and how widespread is the problem of under-age drinking.
10Stammering Cured: Andrew R. BellHalf-a-million people in this country stammer. All they want is to be able to say what they want, when they want. But when they have tried everything which the National Health Service can offer-and still fail to speak fluently-some of them still hope for a miracle. With Q.E.D. watching, eight people went looking for it in the most unlikely place-Kirkcaldy, Fife, linoleum capital of the British Isles, and home of the man whose advertising holds out a promise of that miracle-' Stammering Cured-Andrew R. Bell '.
11Gina: The Last CampbellWith Malcolm Campbell as grandfather and Donald Campbell as a father, Gina had to be someone special; obsessed like them with speed, records - and courting tragedy. Donald died attempting the world record in Bluebird. Last summer, with Q.E.D. watching, Gina attempted a record of her own. Her boat was also called Bluebird. And it reared out of control like her father's. But Gina survived to tell her story.
12Robots: Taking the Biscuit?The day is dawning, so they say, when your personal domestic robot will trundle to fulfil your merest whim. It is already possible to program one to make you a cup of coffee. But what if you then decided you'd like a biscuit too - chocolate of course? Jane Lapotaire wanted a biscuit; but the robot didn't want to know. Q.E.D. explores what would be involved in designing a robot that could see, recognise, aim at reach for, hold and hand her this biscuit - and also discovers on the way quite a lot about what people can do.
13Simon's PeaceFalkland veteran Simon Weston returns home after spending months in hospital after receiving 46% burns when the HMS Sir Galahad was bombed during the Falklands War in 1982. This QED documentary follows Simon during his rehabilitation back in his home town of Nelson South Wales and his struggle to come to terms with his disfigurement and returning to a normal life with his family and friends.