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The first one starts in about 10 minutes on More4!

Professor Sue Hartley examines the 300-million-year war between animals and plants in the annual, family-friendly lectures. In this opener to the week-long series, she points out that since animals (including humans) only eat around a fifth of the Earth's vegetation, the plants are winning. And that's partly because they have evolved an astonishing array of deterrents, from spines, stings and thorns to poisonous chemicals. Curiously, those same toxins have provided us with many key medicines, such as aspirin.

I mis-read your post and looked on E4+1 (as I saw it an hour later), could not see it so thought was an old post then found it in time to see the credits roll!

Was it good? I assume there will be more of the same?

I love the Christmas lectures and watch them every year. This looks like a good series. Apparently it's the first one on the subject of plants since the 1830s.

The only complaint is that they don't have subtitles, so Colin can't enjoy them. This was reasonable when the lectures went out live, but there's not much excuse now that they're not televised until the evening.

Here's an interview with Andy Marmery, the technician behind the demonstrations.

A_n_t wrote:I mis-read your post and looked on E4+1 (as I saw it an hour later), could not see it so thought was an old post then found it in time to see the credits roll!

Was it good? I assume there will be more of the same?

There are 5 in total and I think they're on 4OD.

Pity it's not like when the Beeb used to broadcast them, starting on Boxing Day when many peeps were at home and could watch them in the peace and afterglow of the previous day's excesses. It's just not the same starting before Christmas!