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Horizon producer
Simon’s first film for Horizon was broadcast in January 1969, and was called 'The Miraculous Wonder: the Human Eye'. Narrated by Christopher Chataway, the programme asked if human eyes “were windows to your soul, the receiver of irrelevant information, respectable substitutes for sex, something like footballs? Or a piece of the brain looking out at the world?” (Radio Times, 16 January 1969).
The programme was the first to use super high close ups extensively, and to see the world from a ‘dogs-eye view!’ The experience of making this programme gave Simon the idea for a methodical-creative structure that he would use in later of Horizon documentaries, which he says served him well over the years.
'The Drifting of the Continents' was a highly topical edition of Horizon, broadcast in April 1970. In December 1969 the remains of a small dinosaur were found in Antarctica. Then an Italian fishing village was found to be slowly rising. Meanwhile the inhabitants of San Francisco awaited the destruction of their city.
These three unrelated news items were then just being understood as 'Continental Drift.' The discoveries meant a revolution in geology, and Simon recalls how this not only changed the public’s understanding of the continents, but also his own understanding of science.
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