Robin Ince: TV producers should stop treating public like idiots when making science programmes

Science boomed in popularity only after TV producers stopped treating the public “like idiots”, comedian Robin Ince has claimed.

Together with TV scientist Brian Cox, Ince has helped bring science to a wider audience through their Radio 4 science-cum-comedy show The Infinite Monkey Cage.

They are at the Hammersmith Apollo this week for their seasonal variety show of music, comedy and astrophysics, called Brian And Robin’s Christmas Compendium.

“If you don’t make the presumption that people are idiots and that you have to dumb down everything, then people rise to that,” Ince told the Standard. “People don’t just want colour and tat and no depth. We need not to look down on people and go for the lowest common denominator. People are much smarter than those in charge believed.”

The pair’s show, which runs today and tomorrow, also features music veterans The Cure, comics Josie Long and Milton Jones, and Nasa’s Carolyn Porco.