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Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain

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Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain
GenreRoad trip
Directed bySamuel Palmer
Presented byBobby Seagull, Eric Monkman
Country of originUK
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes4
Production
Executive producersSimon Dickson, Lorraine Charker-Phillips
ProducerMerle Currie
Production companyLabel1 Television Ltd
Original release
NetworkBBC 2
Release17 September 2018 (2018-09-17) –
present

Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain is a BBC documentary series presented by Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull, a duo who met as rivals on the quiz programme University Challenge and became friends, coauthors and radio-show co-hosts. The show is a road trip around the United Kingdom and focuses on British scientific and technological ingenuity and has a voiceover supplied by Simon Callow.

The show aired in September and October 2018 and was recommissioned for a second series which became a new series Monkman & Seagull’s Genius Adventures, which was broadcast in three 60 minute episodes in May 2020.[1]

Episodes

No.Title [2]Directed by [2]Original air date [3]UK viewers
(millions) [4]
1"England"Samuel Palmer17 September 2018 (2018-09-17)1.81

2"Wales"Samuel Palmer24 September 2018 (2018-09-24)1.58

3"Northern Ireland"Samuel Palmer1 October 2018 (2018-10-01)N/A (<1.59)[a]

4"Scotland"Samuel Palmer8 October 2018 (2018-10-08)N/A (<1.69)[a]

Reception

Sarah Hughes in i called the series "entertaining, eccentric, and well-informed" and praised the pair's unforced eccentricity and natural rapport.[5]

Rebecca Nicholson in The Guardian also praised the warmth and appeal of their friendship but said that the show felt a bit "skittish" by not staying at locations for long enough.[6]

In The Evening Standard, Katie Law said there was insufficient chemistry between them and that none of their observations is especially nuanced or perceptive.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Not reported in the weekly top 15 programmes for four-screen viewer ratings.

References

  1. ^ "BBC - BBC Two commissions Monkman & Seagull for second series - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk.
  2. ^ a b "BBC Two - Monkman & Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain - Episode guide". BBC. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  3. ^ "BBC - Programme Information - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  4. ^ "Four Screen Dashboard". BARB. See relevant channel and week(s). Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  5. ^ Hughes, Sarah (17 September 2018). "Monkman and Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain is entertaining, eccentric, and well-informed". inews.co.uk.
  6. ^ Nicholson, Rebecca (17 September 2018). "Monkman and Seagull's Genius Guide To Britain review – nice enough, but where's the brainy swagger?" – via www.theguardian.com.
  7. ^ "Monday's best TV: Monkman and Seagull's Genius Guide to Britain". Evening Standard. 17 September 2018.

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