Irish comedian Dara O Briain has been dabbling in a lot of science lately. Fresh from his hugely popular Stargazing show on the BBC, which he co-presented with Prof Brian Cox, O Briain is about to start a new show all about maths and algebra on Dave tonight.
School Of Hard Sums will run for eight episodes and O Briain will be presenting the show alongside Oxford University maths professor Marcus du Sautoy.
Apparently the show is basing itself on the Emmy Award-nominated Japanese comedy-panel format Comaneci University Mathematics.
The duo will be drawing upon maths, physics, chemistry and logic to solve conundrums, and they’ll also be inviting on guests from the comedy world such as David O’Doherty, Andi Osho, Alex Horne, Simon Evans and Jason Byrne to take on maths problems.
Tonight’s guest will be O’Doherty, while O Briain is also going to be taking a comical look at how maths underpins everything around us.
O’Briain, who has a degree in maths and theoretical physics from University College Dublin, is also one of the ambassadors for Dublin City of Science this year.
On Twitter today, O Briain tweeted: “My nerdy Maths show was previewed as ‘peculiar’ in the Guardian and ‘valiant’ in the Observer. Very excited by these new adjectives.”
Back in January, we spoke to O Briain at the launch of European City of Science, where he delved into the world of science, the Stargazing programme and how he felt he was right up there with Brian Cox in terms of mathematical ability!