Look Around You: Series 1 (2002)

Look Around you is a droll, dry-as-toast British mockumentary series that lauds the science classroom filmstrips of the 1950s through the 1970s while spoofing them. Produced in the style of the mid-1970s (men's hairstyles, retro computers, and so on), the first series of nine 10-minute episodes aired on BBC2 in 2002, on BBC America in 2005, and on Comedy Network's Adult Swim in 2009. It was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2003 and has developed a cult following. The first series has not yet been released on DVD but I have seen all the episodes on Adult Swim and YouTube. Every episode begins with an education-cable-TV-style placard that counts down to a synthesizer-themed introduction in which a person's hands type a BASIC program on a TRS/80-style computer until the the screen is filled with the words LOOK AROUND YOU. Next, every episode opens with a chain of scenes where children (usually doing something unexpected) scramble about as the narrator (Nigel Lambert) didactically intones: "Look around you ... Look around you ... Just look around you! ... Have you seen what we're looking for?" Only in the last split second is a vaguely tenuous clue to the episode's theme given, such as when a match is struck and the narrator then intones "Exactly! Sulphur!" What follows is a pseudoscientific exposition of the episode's subject -- in essence, a few facts mixed with fiction, nonsequiturs, and absurdity -- and then summaries of two nonsensical experiments. You have to see each episode to appreciate its subtle humor and attention to detail (whether factual or just silly, like a jar labeled "NUTS" that holds both edible and metallic nuts). The first series' episodes (topics or "modules" in the show's parlance) are Calcium, Maths, Water, Germs, Ghosts, Sulphur, Music, Iron, and Brain. In keeping with the series' nonsensical nature, reference is made at the end of each episode to "the next module" (which is never seen): Champagne, Cosmetics, Dynamite, Flowers, Hitchhiking, Italians, Reggae, and Romance. Where else, I ask you, can a reasonable-sounding narrator explain that germs come from Germany and whiskey is created by combining nitrogen and water? I most enjoyed when the end products of a sulphur experiment were "suitably disposed of" in the dustbin (using a revolver). Catch this series as soon as you can if you want to be cool (for a science geek)! 5 stars.