Life Story (TV Film)

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''Life Story'' (known as ''The Race for the Double Helix'' in the United States) is a 1987 television historical drama which depicts the progress toward, and the competition for, the discovery of the structure of DNA in the early 1950s. It was directed by Mick Jackson for the

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's '' Horizon'' science series, and stars

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, and

Alan Howard Alan Howard may refer to: * Alan Howard (actor) (1937–2015), English actor * Alan Howard (cricketer) (1909–1993), English cricketer * Alan Howard (engineer) (1905–1966), American engineer * Alan Howard (hedge fund manager) (born 1963), hedge f ...

. It won several awards in the UK and U.S., including the 1988 BAFTA TV Award for Best Single Drama.

Summary

The film dramatises the rivalries of the two teams of scientists attempting to discover the structure of DNA: Francis Crick and

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and ...

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

; and Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College London. They are also competing with other scientists in the UK, and with international scientists such as American Linus Pauling. The film manages to convey the loneliness and competitiveness of scientific research but also educates the viewer about how DNA's structure was discovered. It explores the tension between the patient, dedicated laboratory work of Franklin and the sometimes uninformed intuitive leaps of Watson and Crick, against a background of institutional turf wars, personality conflicts, and sexism. In the film, Watson, extolling the path of intuition, says: "Blessed are they who believed before there was any evidence." It also shows how Watson and Crick made their discovery, overtaking their competitors in part by reasoning from genetic function to predict chemical structure, helping to establish the field of

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

Cast

as James Watson *

as Francis Crick *

as Rosalind Franklin *

as Maurice Wilkins

Production

The film script was written by William Nicholson, based on James Watson's 1968 memoir '' The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA''. It was produced and directed by Mick Jackson for '' Horizon'', the long-running British documentary television series on BBC Two that covers science and philosophy. The film was produced by the BBC in association with the American A&E network Original music was composed for the film by Peter Howell of the

BBC Radiophonic Workshop The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electroni ...

. The main music theme is the ''Le Grand Choral'' by

Georges Delerue Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television. Delerue won numerous important film music awards, including an Academy Award for '' A Little Romance'' (1980), three C ...

, first used in the 1973 French film '' Day for Night'' directed by Truffaut. Detailed 1950s-style molecular models were recreated for the film.

Accuracy

In his book '' What Mad Pursuit'', Francis Crick wrote that there were a few inaccuracies, such as portraying Watson as too manic and as always chewing gum, but wrote that overall "it tells a good story at a good pace so that people from all walks of life can enjoy it and absorb some of its lessons. All in all, ''Life Story'' must be considered a success. In other hands it could easily have been nothing quite as good."

Video recordings

The film has had a number of VHS and DVD releases, but most have been exclusively for institutional educational use and are held by the libraries of colleges and universities. A VHS in PAL format, with the title ''Life Story'', was produced for the educational market. A shortened 90-minute VHS in NTSC format was produced in 1993 by EDDE Entertainment under the title ''The Race for the Double Helix''. In the 2000s, Films for the Humanities & Sciences produced a full-length DVD exclusively for the institutional and educational market, under the title ''Double Helix''.

References

External links

*
''Life Story''
at the

BFI The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Life Story 1987 television films 1987 films Biographical films about scientists British television films Films about Nobel laureates Films directed by Mick Jackson History of genetics Horizon (British TV series) 1980s British films