Since 2020, students on the Animation BA Honours, Illustration and Visual Communications BA Honours and Graphic Communication Design BA Honours courses have produced the title sequence for the BBC Four Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Apart from a four-year break during the Second World War, these lectures have been held every Christmas for nearly 200 years – the first being delivered by renowned scientist Michael Faraday back in 1827.
Today, the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures garner an audience of approximately two million, and they are, for many families, something of a Christmas tradition.
In this year’s three-part lecture series, which was filmed in the iconic lecture theatre at the Royal Institution and is due to be broadcast at 8pm on 26, 27 and 28 December, audiences will hear from Professor Dame Sue Black, who will reveal the secrets of the real-life scientific detective process she uses to identify both the dead and the living.
Professor Black has been dubbed the ‘corpse whisperer’ for her role in deciphering the messages hidden within a dead body as she strives to name the unknown, reuniting dead and living bodies with their identity.
Talking about creating the opening titles for Professor Black’s lectures, Animation student Eleanor Smith said: “This project was incredibly interesting and challenging; it was the first time I worked on a commissioned project, and it was an important learning experience that will be highly useful in any future work.
I learnt many techniques that I would not have previously tried but have now found will be integral to my future practice."
Stephen Ryley, Course Leader for the Animation BA Honours course, added: “I am extremely proud of our students; they have been able to respond to a very challenging brief concerning a difficult topic that is not normally presented to such a young audience, delivering a really ambitious title sequence and operating effectively as a dynamic and proactive team. They were working for three clients at once - the production company, the Royal Institution and the BBC - so to keep them all happy is a great achievement.”
The link between the Royal Institution and the University of Westminster goes back much further than three years, however. In 1847, Professor John Henry Pepper became the first director of the Royal Polytechnic Institution, which was the antecedent organisation of the University. He then began delivering his own series of scientific lectures to the working people of London, from the Royal Polytechnic on Regent Street.
Professor Pepper is best-known for this stage illusion Pepper’s Ghost, which was the origin for the modern stage hologram. Michael Faraday took a great interest in the Ghost Illusion, and Professor Pepper gave him a behind-the-scenes tour to explain its secret.
Pepper’s Projection Theatre is now the University’s Regent Street Cinema, which hosted Britain’s first film screening in 1896. Both the University of Westminster and the Royal Institution have continued in their mission to educate, inform and entertain to this day.
Watch the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC Four or on BBC iPlayer shortly after broadcast.
