''The Big Bang'' is a

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

science show broadcast from 15 April 1996 – 8 September 2004 and produced by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

. It is notable for being one of CITV's longest-running science programmes. The aim of the programme was to make science fun and interesting for children.

History

Starting in 1996, ''The Big Bang'' was originally presented by Gareth Jones and

Kate Bellingham Katherine Bellingham (born 1963)Royal Society of Chemistry
– s ...

. Kate Bellingham left after the second series to care for her new child. Gareth Jones's long-time friend and now partner

Violet Berlin Violet Berlin (born 2 January 1968) is a British television presenter, producer and script writer for films, games and immersive experiences, best known for her pioneering coverage of innovative technology and video games. Career Berlin first ...

was her replacement for the third series in 1998. The show essentially stayed the same before a new logo and set design was introduced for the fifth and sixth series in 2000 and 2001. Both Gareth and Violet left the show after the sixth series as they were, as said by ITV at the time, "concentrating on running their own company hizzBangand looking after baby Indigo".The Big Bang series 7 website, 'Presenters' page
/ref> However, Gareth Jones later revealed on his website that they left because "when we were asked to do the 2002 series it looked like many of the people who usually make the programme with us wouldn't be doing it any more. There were lots of changes planned for the Big Bang which Violet & I didn't agree with, so we said thank you for the last 6 series and wished them all the luck for the future."
/ref> For the seventh series the show had another rebrand, notably a new theme tune, the first since the beginning of the show, however the old theme tune was brought back for the final two series. There was also a new logo, and new presenters Kate McIntyre and Michael Underwood were introduced. The set stayed remained mainly unchanged, however the neon ''The Big Bang'' sign in the kitchen was not replaced with the new logo until series 8. Michael and Kate presented the show together for two series, until Michael left to present ''

Ministry of Mayhem ''Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown'' (previously titled ''Ministry of Mayhem'' and ''MoM'') was a British children's entertainment programme, which was broadcast on ITV (later CITV) from 10 January 2004 to 1 July 2006. Overview ''Ministry ...

'', and for the ninth and last series he was replaced with

Sam Pinkham Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictiona ...

. In 2003, a shorter 5-minute version of the show, ''The Little Bang'', was introduced at weekends. It took one section from a normal Big Bang episode and displayed what was needed for the make at the beginning of the show. After the show ended, it was repeated daily on

Discovery Kids UK Discovery Kids was a British and Irish pay television channel. The channel initially began broadcasting exclusively on the On Digital service time sharing with Discovery Wings, an aviation-focused channel similarly created initially as an On ...

, who started showing it with the first series and all the way up until the sixth before the channel closed in 2007. Afterwards, series 7, 8 and 9 were regularly repeated on the

channel, normally at weekends until the end of 2012. In Vietnam from 2003, all series of the show were originally aired on HTV7, later on HTV1 (public) and HTV4 (education & science).

Series guide

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Bang, The 1996 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings 1990s British children's television series 2000s British children's television series ITV children's television shows Science education in the United Kingdom Science education television series Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Yorkshire Television Youth science