Season 1 • Episode 6
LatestJames Burke considers whether language is the way in which reality is shared.
Asking how you tell what's real and what isn't sounds like an obvious question. But in this series of six programmes, James Burke shows that the more you think about it the harder it is to answer. After all, what have you got, apart from your five senses, to prove those senses are giving you the real thing?
Direction
Burke's signature web-of-knowledge storytelling, perfected.
Writing
Dense philosophy made dangerously digestible.
Production
Gloriously 80s visuals that somehow age well.
Creator
James Burke
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Burke was riding high off Connections (1978) fame, essentially inventing the 'smart host walks around explaining everything' format that would dominate edutainment for decades.
Each episode's structure mirrors its philosophical argument—Burke literally constructs deceptive narratives to prove we can't trust narratives. The man commits.
GB
