Look Around You: Season 1

Look Around You is a BAFTA-nominated Pythonesque spoof of educational films from the 70's and 80's. Through a series of gloriously deadpan experiments, we observe a colony of ants build an igloo, receive a telephone call from a brain, discover why ghosts can't whistle, and reveal the largest number in the world. Science has never been so silly.

Calcium
In this pilot episode, we take a look, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the element Calcium, well-known for its presence in bones, kettles and outer space. Without Calcium, we'd all be spineless, and indeed legless.

Maths
Maths can help us no end in our daily lives - for example, in cooking pasta, in calculating the correct moment for starting a conversation, or (if you can fly) in working out where to land. Queen Elizabeth III (QE3) and Queen Elizabeth IV (QE4) are going to a party given by Queen Elizabeth V (QE5). QE3 has forty dresses to choose from, QE4 has four thousand, and QE5 has only one dress, but it can take the form of many dresses. Then, during the night, QE3's servant steals the plans for QE4's party dress and, working till dawn, makes four thousand exact copies... So can we reckon what the chance is that all of the Queens will be wearing the same dress at the party? And would it be a good
idea?

Water
In this episode we learn all about the amazing igloo-building skills of ants and the surprising ability of water to boil eggs. And if we were to put the two together...

Germs
You need to know something about Germs. You really do. And Professor Clifford Miles of our Germ Unit can help you. Over to you, professor.

Ghosts
Why can't ghosts whistle? Well, let's hear from a ghost. Is there any particular reason why you can't manage it, and does it bother you?

Sulphur
Sulphur is revealed, and the story is not really about brimstone. Or treacle. Len Pounds will weigh the evidence in the balance for us.

Music
The gang gives us its brief investigation of the world of music, from some Neolithic beginnings. What did Stone-Age Man know about music? Or Partario, come to that?

Iron
You know, Iron (Fe) is not quite all its cut up to be. The use of magnets is strictly prohibited during this episode. Here is a question from the Look Around You quiz. You are an iron filing. You have fallen out of your packet and are now lying at the bottom of a well in Chichester. Three times a month, a Water Maid pays a visit to the well to gather water for her washing. If the surface area of the well is 750,000 cubic fluorometers, and your own surface area (as a filing) is 0.78mm², what is the probability that the Water Maid will scoop you up in her bucket?

The Brain
The team investigates the human brain and meets a man who is addicted to EBE (electronic brain enhancements). What happens if you probe the brobe? How many nuts are there in a jar? And what are brain flakes? All of these questions are addressed, if not answered.

Directed by Tim Kirkby
Written by Robert Popper, Produced by Robert Popper, Peter Serafinowicz
Executive Produced by Peter Fincham, Ash Atalla, Mark Freeland
Original Music by Robert Popper, Peter Serafinowicz
Cinematography by John E. Walker
Film Editing by Chris Dickens, Paul Machliss
Costume Design by Wiz Francis, Georgina Napier

"a nonsensical blast from the past" - Wired

"hilarious" Entertainment Weekly

"One of the funniest shows I've ever seen" - Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons

"Bizarrely funny" - New York Times

"A pitch perfect parody" - Los Angeles Times

"Look Around You had us in hysterics - way funnier than most half-hour sitcoms" - New York Post

"Hilariously droll, spot-on parody" - Los Angeles Daily News

"Oodles of fun" - Wall Street Journal