INTERVIEW:Presenting children's TV and 'Top of the Pops'didn't require Liz Bonnin to use her biochemistry degree, but a new programme brings her science knowledge to the fore, she tells KEVIN COURTNEY
VIEWERS OF A CERTAIN age will fondly recall a magic hour on Thursday evenings past, when the family would gather round to watch Tomorrow's Worldand Top of the Pops. It was a heady mix of TV heaven – a bunch of brainy boffins talking excitedly about flying cars and digital watches, followed by a bunch of hairy pop stars singing about peace, love and moonwalking.
At 32, Liz Bonnin hasn't yet reached that certain age, but she remembers watching TW and TOTP every Thursday night as a young girl in Foxrock in south Dublin. "Seriously, they were my two favourite programmes growing up," she insists. Most of us dreamed of being on Top of the Pops, strutting our stuff like Morrissey or Marc Bolan. Bonnin, though, went one better – in 2002 she became a regular presenter of Top of the Pops, joining an exalted club that includes Jimmy Savile, Noel Edmonds and Jo Whiley.
Now, she's a co-presenter on what's being touted as the new Tomorrow's World– a science magazine show with the attention-grabbing title Bang Goes the Theory.
Starting next Monday night on BBC1, BGTT (as we shall call it) is presented by Bonnin, Dallas Campbell, Jem Stansfield and Dr Yan Wong, and aims to bring science slap bang into your living room.
Bonnin and her three male co-presenters certainly don’t fit the usual formula of the musty old scientist – they could be a hot new electro-pop band, or the cast of a new Fantastic Four movie. But each one is well qualified to talk about science. Bonnin, for instance, has a degree in biochemistry from Trinity College, Dublin, and recently went back to academia to get a master’s degree in wild animal biology and conservation from the Royal Veterinary College in London. Her pet passion is wild cat conservation.
Bang Goes the Theoryis, she says, her dream job, "because it combines my biochemistry knowledge and my biology knowledge, but it also throws me in the deep end with other sciences that I may not necessarily be an expert at, but I can learn about it along with the viewers."
Unlike its predictive predecessor, BGTT focuses on the technology of today’s world.
“We’re going look at this technology, what can we do with it to make it fun, at how we can adapt it. Let’s take it into the studio and do something with it. There will always be technology to talk about in the future and we touch on that, but there’s a real surge of interest in science right now, and it’s quite apt that our show is dealing with the science that’s happening now.”
In the first programme, Bonnin travels to the US to meet controversial geneticist Craig Venter, who was one of the first to map the human genome and is now attempting to create artificial life. Sounds like Blade Runner is finally coming to pass.
“The great thing about this programme is that it’s not just a show and tell. We get immersed in each story and try to push the boundaries, and we literally test out the principles in this massive space where we do a lot of the experiments. So we’re not just talking heads – we really get stuck into the subject.”
Earlier this month, the quantum quartet staged an ambitious live promo which was aired just before EastEnders. It featured an apparatus of indeterminate purpose known as the "giant contraption", a massive array of metal, pulleys, wires, tubes, magnets and missiles, all housed in a large hangar in Bedfordshire, which is the team's HQ for the series.
The three-minute segment began with Bonnin using a pushbike to power a Van De Graaf generator, starting a “cascade” of scientific events which, if anything went wrong, could have been catastrophic. As you are reading this, clearly the live experiment was successful, and the giant contraption didn’t create a massive black hole and destroy the Earth.
They may not look like nerdy boffins, but Bonnin assures me that her co-presenters have the nutty quotient. During the series, one will attempt to climb a tall building using vacuum suction, another will test out a lethal-sounding “vortex cannon” and Liz will travel in a Norwegian rescue submarine that, when docked with a vessel in distress, relies solely on water pressure to keep from flooding.
“There’s always an element of danger in what we’re doing, but then you know what? We rely on the science working, and so far the science has backed us up and worked and we’re all alive and kicking still.” Bonnin’s no stranger to danger, having tracked tigers in Nepal and India as part of her degree studies.
“I’m quite fearless with them,” she admits, sheepishly. “I have an incredible love for them and a real hunger to help with conservation work. It’s going to sound a bit hippy here, but it was truly a spiritual experience.”
It wasn’t all spiritual enlightenment, though; she also had to examine tiger “scats” in temperatures of 40 degrees during a monsoon, and when her team got a little too close to a female tiger, she caught a scary glimpse of the animal’s awesome power.
“It reminds you of that respect you have to have for wild animals. Unfortunately, some people tend to have a bit too much bravado with wildlife, but you’ve got to respect their territory and how they live, and don’t get too up-close-and-personal with them.”
The same caution could apply to the catty world of entertainment, where Bonnin established herself as a presenter on such shows as Channel 4's RI:SE. Before that, she presented children's programme Den 2 on RTÉ, and before that she was a member of girlband hopefuls Chill, who were created by Dublin nightclub doyenne Valerie Roe. They were signed to Polydor, and Bonnin spent a year in London with the group recording, rehearsing, performing on the Smash Hits Roadshow and generally living the life of Riley. Alas, the hits never happened – they never even got to appear on Top of the Pops, but Bonnin has no regrets about her youthful bid for pop stardom.
“At the time we were disappointed that it didn’t work out. But when you’re young and you want to have some fun, it’s a great experience. But, oh my God, this is what I really want to be doing. I have to keep pinching myself, sometimes it feels a bit surreal that I’ve ended up on the BBC doing these dream jobs.”
Bang Goes The Theorystarts on BBC1 on Monday, July 27th, at 7.30pm.