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Connections (British TV series)

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Documentary TV series and book by James Burke

This article is about the British science education series. For the British game show, see Connections (game show).

ConnectionsJames Burke, the creator and host of Connections, explains the Haber-Bosch Process.<br>GenreScience educationWritten byJames BurkeDirected byMick Jackson<br>Mike Slee<br>Charles Mapleston<br>Anthony Willis<br>Luke BellisPresented byJames BurkeCountry of originUnited KingdomOriginal languageEnglishNo. of series4No. of episodes46ProductionRunning time50 minutes<br>(22 min, Series 2)Original releaseNetworkBBCRelease17 October (1978-10-17) –<br>19 December 1978 (1978-12-19)<br>Connections is a science education television series created, written, and presented by British science historian James Burke. The series was produced and directed by Mick Jackson of the BBC Science and Features Department and first aired in 1978 (UK) and 1979 (US). It took an interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention, and demonstrated how various discoveries, scientific achievements, and historical world events were built from one another successively in an interconnected way to bring about particular aspects of modern technology. The series was noted for Burke's crisp and enthusiastic presentation (and dry humour), historical re-enactments, and intricate working models.

The popular success of the series led to the production of The Day the Universe Changed (1985), a similar programme, but showing a more linear history of several important scientific developments and their more philosophic impact on Western civilisation.

Years later, the success in syndication led to three sequels. Connections2 (1994) and Connections3 (1997) were made for TLC. In November 2023, the six-episode series Connections with James Burke premièred on Curiosity Stream, again with Burke as the on-screen presenter.[1]

In 2004, KCSM-TV produced a program called Re-Connections, consisting of an interview of Burke and highlights of the original series, for the 25th anniversary of the first broadcast in the US on PBS.[2]

Content<br>[edit]

Modern soldiers demonstrated the use of steel-tipped pikes by the Swiss against Charles the Bold in one of the many re-enactments used in Connections.<br>Connections explores an "Alternative View of Change" (the subtitle of the series) that rejects the conventional linear and teleological view of historical progress. Burke contends that one cannot consider the development of any particular piece of the modern world in isolation. Rather, the entire gestalt of the modern world is the result of a web of interconnected events, each one consisting of a person or group acting for reasons of their own motivations (e.g., profit, curiosity, religion) with no concept of the final, modern result to which the actions of either them or their contemporaries would lead. The interplay of the results of these isolated events is what drives history and innovation, and is also the main focus of the series and its sequels.[3]

To demonstrate this view, Burke begins each episode with a particular event or innovation in the past (usually ancient or medieval times) and traces the path from that event through a series of seemingly unrelated connections to a fundamental and essential aspect of the modern world. For example, the episode "The Long Chain" traces the invention of plastics from the development of the fluyt, a type of Dutch cargo ship.

Burke also explores three corollaries to his initial thesis. The first is that, if history is driven by individuals who act only on what they know at the time, and not because of any idea as to where their actions will eventually lead, then predicting the future course of technological progress is merely conjecture. Therefore, if we are astonished by the connections Burke is able to weave among past events, then we will be equally surprised to what the events of today eventually will lead, especially events of which we were not even aware at the time.[3]

The second and third corollaries are explored most in the introductory and concluding episodes, and they represent the downside of an interconnected history. If history progresses because of the synergistic interaction of past events and innovations, then as history does progress, the number of these events and innovations increases. This increase in possible connections causes the process of innovation to not only continue, but also to accelerate. Burke poses the question of what happens when this rate of innovation, or more importantly "change" itself, becomes too much for the average person to handle, and what this means for individual power, liberty, and privacy.

Lastly, if the entire...