Our Work with The BBC on the History of Ideas series

As one of the world’s most respected public broadcasters, ‘Aunty Beeb’ needs no introduction.

We’ve been working with the BBC for six years on a range of projects and in different animation styles including whiteboard (with the hairy hand). Our work has been used on Radio, Television and the BBC website to explain complex subjects – we even got to illustrate Professor Stephen Hawking’s Reith Lectures on the nature of black holes.

Cartoon image of a toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, and a glass of water.

A History of Ideas

How did everything begin? What is love? How do I live a good life? These are just some of the questions that ‘A History of Ideas’ sets out to address. Our animations illustrate and complement the thought-provoking scripts delivered by the vocal talents of Stephen Fry, Gillian Anderson, Harry Shearer and Aidan Turner.

Question 1: What is freedom?

Beauty
A History of Ideas: The Libet Experiments and Free Will
A History of Ideas: Thomas Hobbes on Freedom Vs Security
A History of Ideas: The Free Will Defence
A History of Ideas: John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle
A birdcage with a bird flying out and a bird feather falling, overlaid with the text 'What is freedom?'

Question 2: What is beauty?

A person standing on a platform with their back to the viewer, holding their head with both hands. A ladder is positioned beside them. Overlaid text reads, 'What is beauty?' The background is minimalistic with geometric and mountain designs.
What is justice?
A History of Ideas: The Golden Ratio
A History of Ideas: Simone de Beauvoir on Feminine Beauty
A History of Ideas: Diotima’s Ladder And The Appreciation Of Beauty
A History of Ideas: Edmund Burke on the Sublime

Question 3: How can I know right from wrong?

How do I lead a good life?
A History of Ideas: Peter Singer On The Life You Can Save
A History of Ideas: Kant's Axe
A History of Ideas: The Trolley Problem
A History of Ideas: The Is/Ought Problem (AKA ‘Hume’s Guillotine’)
A collage with a large orange rectangle containing the text 'How can I know right from wrong?' above a vintage tram car. On top of the tram, there are six black-and-white vintage characters dressed in different costumes, and above them, a large axe and a piece of raw meat are shown.

Question 4: How did everything begin?

A silver pocket watch with a chain resting on a white surface, with a white lotus flower below and red text box in the middle stating, "How did everything begin?".
Featured
A History of Ideas: William Paley and the Divine Watchmaker
History of Ideas: Thomas Aquinas and the First Mover Argument
A History of Ideas: Hindu Creation Stories
A History of Ideas: Astronomer Carole Mundell on the Big Bang
Featured
A History of Ideas: The Idea of Cultural Transmission
A History of Ideas: Karl Marx on Alienation
A History of Ideas: John Locke on Personal Identity
A History of Ideas: Noam Chomsky on Language Acquisition
A graphic with a gear surrounding Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, a DNA double helix at the bottom, and the text "What makes me human?" in the center.

Question 6: How has technology changed us?

A woman with a hair bun and side profile, partially a human skull with a mechanical eye socket, with a caption 'How has technology changed us?'
Featured
A History of Ideas: Rewiring the Brain
A History of Ideas: Luciano Floridi On The Fourth Revolution
A History of Ideas: The Antikythera Mechanism
History of Ideas: Marshall McLuhan On The Medium is the Message

Question 7: How do I live a good life?

Featured
A History of Ideas: Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths
A History of Ideas: Ayn Rand on Selfishness
A History of Ideas: Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic
A History of Ideas: Aristotle on ‘Flourishing'
A person relaxing on a lounge chair with the caption 'How do I live a good life?' above in a pink box, with three flying birds and a single eye icon in the background.

Question 8: What is justice?

A Guy Fawkes mask, a human eye, a scale, and a tooth with the text 'What is justice?'
Featured
A History of Ideas: Habeas Corpus
A History of Ideas: Lex Talionis and Retribution
A History of Ideas: John Rawls On The Veil of Ignorance
A History of Ideas: Henry David Thoreau On Civil Disobedience

Question 9: What does it mean to be me?

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A History of Ideas: Jean Paul Sartre and the Existential Choice
A History of Ideas: Erving Goffman and the Performed Self
A History of Ideas: Know Thyself
A History of Ideas: Renee Descartes and "I Think, Therefore I Am"
A vintage mirror with a fingerprint on it, theatrical masks representing comedy and tragedy, and the text "What does it mean to be me?" in black font on a light green background.

Question 10: How should we live together?

Black and white puppet theatre with two puppets on stage, and a blue text box with the question 'How should we live together?'
Featured
A History of Ideas: Confucian Ancestor Worship
A History of Ideas: Adam Smith On The Invisible Hand
A History of Ideas: Plato's Philosopher Kings
A History of Ideas: John Locke on Toleration

Question 5: What makes me human?

Question 11: What is love?

Featured
A History of Ideas: Selfless Love
A History of Ideas: The Oedipus Complex
A History of Ideas: Sartre on Love
A History of Ideas: The Myth of the Missing Half
Black and white illustration of a heart with a crown of thorns around it, dripping with black liquid. Two birds are perched below, and a woman is inside the heart. There is text at the bottom that asks, 'What is love?'

Question 12:  How can I know anything at all?

A human head with a tree silhouette inside and birds flying out, with a blue overlay containing the question, 'How can I know anything at all?' Below are three compartments containing images of a beetle, a wheelchair, and a prehistoric reptile.
Featured
A History of Ideas: George Berkeley On 'Esse Est Percipi' ('To Be Is To Be Perceived')
A History of Ideas: Hume on Miracles
A History of Ideas: Wittgenstein’s Beetle In A Box Analogy
A History of Ideas: Karl Popper On Falsification