Adam Hart-Davis

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Image:Adam Hart-Davis.jpg Adam John Hart-Davis (born July 4, 1943) is a British author, photographer, and broadcaster, well-known in the UK for presenting the television series Local Heroes and What the Romans Did for Us, the latter spawning several spin-off series involving the Victorians, the Tudors, and the Stuarts. The most recent version of this series is called What the Ancients Did for Us. This is a departure from the previous series not only in that each episode is an hour long rather than half an hour (though heavily edited half-hour versions have also been shown), but also in that it does not concentrate on a single period of history but rather one ancient civilization per episode including the Chinese, the Indians and the Greeks. He was also a co-presenter of Tomorrow's World, and continues to present Science Shack.

Born and raised in Henley-on-Thames, he attended Eton College, before studying for a degree in chemistry at Merton College, Oxford. He later took a PhD in organometallic chemistry at the University of York before spending three years as a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Alberta in Canada. Subsequently, he worked at the Oxford University Press, editing science texts and chess manuals.

His work in broadcasting began in 1977 when he joined Yorkshire Television (YTV) as a researcher, working on material for the likes of Magnus Pyke, David Bellamy, and Miriam Stoppard.

In 1985 he was promoted to production work, producing Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World, the Fred Harris-fronted TV show Me & My Micro and the Johnny Ball-fronted Fun & Games amongst other things. He also devised and produced the school science show Scientific Eye.

In the early 1990s he moved in front of the camera to present two series for the YTV region: On the Edge and Local Heroes. The latter programme involved him cycling around Yorkshire in his trademark fluorescent pink and yellow cycling clothes, seeking out places associated with the great innovators of science and technology. The bicycles were his own, he is a keen cyclist, owning an early Burrows Windcheetah as well as a mountain bike fitted with an early front monoblade. This series was subsequently transferred to BBC2, where its scope became national, a different region being the subject of each episode.

Since then he has essentially become the face of the BBC's output on science and the history of science. At the same time he is heavily critical of the standard of science output on British television (including, to a certain extent, his own programmes), which he sees as dumbed-down.

He has written many books, including a history of the toilet, entitled Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper (Thomas Crapper being one of the pioneers of the toilet's development).

Hart-Davis is the youngest child of the publisher Sir Rupert Hart-Davis (1907–1999) by his second wife Catherine Comfort Borden-Turner, his siblings being the journalist Duff Hart-Davis and Lady Silsoe. His father had previously been married to the actress Peggy Ashcroft.

Adam Hart-Davis was married (1965–1995) to Adrienne Alpin, by whom he had two sons.

He is now the partner of the psychologist Dr. Susan Blackmore. He lives with her and her family in Bristol.

External links

• Old and new Adam Hart-Davis websites
• Adam's biography at "Speakers UK"
• BBC Press Office biography
• Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper extracts