Tomorrows World started in 1965.
THE PRESENTERS: For the first twelve years of its life, the 'World was the domain of BBC commentator and ex-Spitfire pilot Raymond Baxter, who had worked with Singer and Jones on a number of previous science-based programmes such as Eye on Research. Baxter was old school BBC, plummy of voice and stiff of lip, but could lend himself to a spot of light-hearted quizzicality when introducing some of the less serious items. Also narrating was Derek Cooper, the similarly authoritative voice of Michael Apted's 7 Up documentaries among other things. The "wild card" in the pack was James Burke. Coming from an academic, as opposed to Baxter's patrician, background, Burke, a former English teacher and interpreter at the Vatican, came to the BBC from Granada TV, and quickly made a name for himself anchoring the Beeb's coverage of major US and Soviet space launches. As far as the 'World was concerned, he cut a slightly eccentric, mad-haired figure next to his more restrained co-hosts, staring intensely trhough his specs at the camera as his head filled the screen in the extreme close-up shots utilised in sixties television. Although Baxter is remembered nowadays with great fondness, Burke stopped the early days of the 'World from being too staid and straight. He left the programme in the mid-'70s to concentrate on his quixotic - and highly successful - science documentaries, beginning with the famed Connections.