Television series
Connections
James Burke stands in front of a wall, then a canal, then a medieval loom, and shows you that gunpowder leads to the guillotine and the plough leads to the computer. It's history as a chain reaction rather than a timeline, delivered with the delight of a man who can't believe he gets to tell you this. Ten hours, no dumbing down, still dazzling.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy following a chain of accidents and inventions where one odd detour quietly sets up the next, and you like being shown how the modern world got tangled together rather than told a tidy list of great men.
Skip it if you want a rigorous, step-by-step lecture or a fast modern visual style, since the presenter wanders, the tone is chatty, and the production shows its late-1970s age.
What it asks of you: Forty episodes across three seasons, so it asks for a long commitment, and it moves at an unhurried pace where you sit with each thread for a while before the next one picks it up.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Ascent of Man1973
Bronowski walking through Auschwitz to talk about certainty in science is one of the great moments of television, and the whole series has that same weight of a scholar staking his life on an idea.
But Slower and more solemn than Burke; it argues rather than performs, and some episodes feel like a lecture you didn't sign up for.
Civilisation1969
Kenneth Clark invented the presenter-as-guide format Burke would later run wild with, standing in front of cathedrals and paintings and just thinking aloud, brilliantly, for thirteen episodes.
But It's about art and belief rather than gears and wires, and Clark's patrician tone can feel a world away from Burke's mischief.
Cosmos1980
Sagan does for the universe what Burke does for invention: makes you feel the scale of things while never losing the thread of a single curious human mind.
But Some of the special effects and science have dated badly, and it's more awestruck than playful.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Connections
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Our Mr. Sun1956
The genuine ancestor of the whole genre Burke perfected — proof the friendly-explainer-walks-you-through-science format was alive and well in the Eisenhower era, just wearing a company logo.
Frank Capra directed this for Bell Labs two decades before Connections existed, and it's already doing the thing — a warm, confident host walking you through solar energy and photosynthesis like a fireside chat, corporate sponsor and all.
But It's an unashamed piece of Cold War-era corporate optimism, complete with cartoon characters and a straight-faced pitch for Bell System's public image.
More like this (6)
How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson2014
Steven Johnson is doing Burke's exact trick for a modern audience — glass, cold, sound, light, each one unspooling into things you'd never have guessed were related.
But Glossier and more soundbitey than the original; six half-hours rather than ten hours, so the connections feel thinner.
The Day the Universe Changed1985
Burke again, this time chasing how ideas rather than gadgets rewired the world — the printing press, the telescope, the idea of truth itself changing under your feet.
But It's more philosophical and less mechanically inventive than Connections; the pleasure of watching gears click into place is muted here.
The Secret Life of Machines1988
Tim Hunkin takes the toaster and the vacuum cleaner apart, literally, with cardboard models and dry British wit, showing you the same joy in ordinary mechanisms Burke finds in history.
But Much smaller in scope — object by object rather than civilisation by civilisation — and the production is charmingly, sometimes distractingly, cheap.
The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion2010
Michael Mosley traces scientific discovery through the personalities and rivalries behind it, which gives it a soap-opera pull Burke's more diagrammatic style doesn't really go for.
But It's a more conventional talking-heads-and-reconstruction documentary; the structural fireworks of Connections aren't really the point here.
Longitude2000
A dramatised account of John Harrison's decades-long fight to build a clock accurate enough to save sailors' lives — one single thread from Burke's tapestry, pulled out and given a face and a grudge.
But It's fiction with real stakes rather than Burke's roaming essay form, and its slow, aggrieved pace won't suit everyone.
Dr. Stone2019
Takes Connections' central idea — technology as an unbroken chain, each invention only possible because of the last — and turns it from a lecture into a survival plot, showing the tech tree instead of narrating it.
An anime where the entire human race is turned to stone and the survivors have to reinvent civilisation from scratch — literally rebuilding gunpowder, electricity and steel in the order Burke would recognise, but as a teenage adventure with actual stakes.
But It's shonen anime with all the tropes that implies — shouting, rivalries, over-the-top reactions — a long way from Burke's dry English understatement.
People
Cast
James BurkePresenter
Recommended by
Look Around You, MacGyver, A History of Britain by Simon Schama, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Ascent of Man, The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion, How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson, The Day the Universe Changed, Civilisations, Andrew Marr's History of the World, Blockbusters, Scrapheap Challenge, Insert Name Here, Beat Shazam, The Naked Archaeologist, Earth: The Power of the Planet, Civilization: Is the West History?, Engineering an Empire, Extreme Engineering, Ancient Worlds, The Silk Road, Tomorrow's World, James May's Cars of the People