Look Around You - Series One

Series One

In the first series, the episodes ("modules") satirise and pay homage to late 1970s and early 1980s educational films and school programmes such as ITV's "Experiment" series and BBC's "For Schools and Colleges", which were re-run for many years after they were made. A different scientific subject is covered in each episode.

The modules were, in order of transmission:

1. Calcium (pilot, double episode)
2. Maths
3. Water
4. Germs
5. Ghosts
6. Sulphur
7. Music
8. Iron
9. Brain

The humour is derived from a combination of patent nonsense and faithful references and homages. For instance, fictional items that have a passing resemblance to everyday objects are shown and discussed. Such items include the Boîte Diabolique, a box at the top of a piano scale which housed the "forbidden notes"; and "Garry Gum", a performance-enhancing chewing gum which has the unfortunate side-effect of inducing diarrhoea, necessitating the consumption of "Anti-Garry Gum". Each episode begins with an authentic "countdown clock", similar to the one used on ITV Schools programmes from 1979 to 1987. The music that accompanies the countdown is in the same spirit as the original, but is played on a solo guitar, and at the beginning of "The Brain" module, the guitarist can be heard tuning.

The module subjects are distorted beyond recognition; for instance, germs are described as coming from Germany, and whisky is said to be made by combining water with nitrogen. The maths module features a distorted and inaccurate version of the ancient 'seven cats' puzzle by Ahmes. Additionally, subjects are mixed - for example a chemistry experiment about eggs (In the episode Water) turns into a French language lesson. Each episode follows a general format, beginning with an introduction to the subject, followed by a series of silly experiments performed by the hapless (and normally mute) scientists, played by Popper, Serafinowicz and Edgar Wright, among others.

The colour and overall look of the film was purposely altered to replicate 1980s television for schools, and passably authentic incidental music written by Serafinowicz and Popper under the pseudonym Gelg was overdubbed to complete the parody of the original programmes.

A running gag throughout the series is the fastidious labelling of all items in Dymo tape, such as hairdryers, magnets, a bottle of maths, or a jar of nuts (which contained both types of nut: the foodstuff and fastener). Another recurring joke is the use of fictional apparatus and materials used in the experiments – items such as the Besselheim plate pokes fun at real lab equipment, often named after their designers (e.g. Petri dish, Erlenmeyer flask). Pencils are always used to point at key elements of the experiments, as the 'scientists' do not speak: this is sometimes taken to ridiculous levels—pointing out pencils using a pencil; pointing at chocolates and then at a person to show they are a gift.

The series was commissioned based on a 20-minute pilot episode (twice the length of an episode in the first series, but otherwise identical); this is included on the DVD release of Series 1 as an "advanced double-length module".

The DVD extras also include a music video for the song "Little Mouse" (as featured in the module on music), a selection of mock-Ceefax pages, and a creator's commentary. The joke is taken even further by presenting the DVD subtitles in exactly the same format as those broadcast via teletext.

At the end of each episode, reference is made to the "next module" - although these episodes were never actually made. The episodes that are promised, but never seen are:

• Champagne
• Cosmetics
• Dynamite
• Flowers
• Hitchhiking
• Italians
• Reggae
• Romance

On the DVD Ceefax pages there were also two unseen modules:

• Blood
• Further Maths