BBC Greenlights Brian Cox Mars Doc; Channel 4 Privatization Reactions; ‘MasterChef’ France; Story Company Hires – Global Briefs

deadline.com:

BBC Greenlights Three Science Shows Including Brian Cox Mars DocThe BBC has greenlit three science programmes including a series in which Brian Cox heads inside the mission to Mars.

In Arrow Media’s Seven Days on Mars feature doc, the celebrated TV scientist will be granted special privilege to access the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mission control Mars.

In 1980 he wrote to the laboratory asking for photos from Voyager and the Viking Mission to Mars and it was a source of inspiration to his becoming a physicist, and the show, shot over a week, will allow Cox to realize his dream as he navigates the Rover’s every move.

In the process, Cox will reveal how the mission could potentially transform our understanding of life not just on Mars but Earth as well. “The Perseverance Rover, and the Mars Sample Return missions to follow, may answer a deeper question even than ‘Is there life on Mars?,” said Cox. “They may reveal how life begins across the Universe, including here on Earth, and give us unique insight into our own origins.” BBC factual has also commissioned Secrets of Size: Atoms to Supergalaxies, a mindbending BBC Four/iPlayer series in which Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates what the universe would look like if it were a billion times smaller or a billion times bigger, along with a Horizon special on the James Webb telescope. “The scientists exploring space and the workings of our universe are doing some of the most awe-inspiring work on our planet today.