In search of utopia Published on: 4 August 2017 The enduring appeal of utopia is the focus of a major new series for BBC Four, presented by Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s Professor Richard Clay. Yearning for utopia In the three-part series, Professor Clay sets out to discover what it is in the human condition that yearns for utopia and what it is that frustrates us getting there. “Ever since Thomas More coined the term in 1516, utopia - that better place somewhere between fiction and reality - has been reimagined and reinvented by generations of writers and dreamers,” says Professor Clay. In the first episode, Professor Clay talks to football commentator John Motson about how the sport can help us feel one step closer to utopia through a shared sense of hope and belonging. Watch the Photograph of Professor Richard Clay courtesy of BBC/ClearStory/Alex Brisland. Inclusive ideals Also featured in the first programme is fellow Â鶹´«Ã½ academic Professor Matthew Grenby, an expert in children’s literature. Professor Grenby is filmed running a workshop for local schoolchildren to explore the extraordinary worlds of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, the inclusive ideals of Jonathan Swift and the notion of the perfect world. Professor Clay then sets out how Gulliver’s Travels ultimately inspired a small utopia in Â鶹´«Ã½ – the Town Moor - and the connection between it and Wikipedia. Spanning both high art and popular culture, the series features interviews with figures including Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, architect Norman Foster and composer Steve Reich. Our deepest hopes and fears “That yearning that shared hope, for better is like a current that runs throughout history – from football fans to philosophers, from explorers to architects,” Professor Clay continued.“The idea of utopia has been an engine of cultural change, spurring human imagination, inspiring major art and design movements, spawning new genres of fiction and forging experimental communities.“In this series, I hope to uncover what utopian visions reveal about our deepest hopes and fears and whether they can actually inspire real change.”‘In search of Utopia’ is part of a celebrating and exploring the ideas, inspirations and visionaries behind the concept of utopia. Homepage picture shows Professor Richard Clay in an abandoned “Dymaxion Deployment Unit” (DDU). Image Credit:BBC/ClearStory/Alex Brisland Share: Latest News Scientists unlock hidden driver of inflammatory bowel disease Scientists have linked a key genetic signal in inflammatory bowel disease to an immune response that shuts down inflammation control, enabling faster diagnosis and targeted treatments. published on: 15 June 2026 Funding system risks limiting genuine community collaboration A new policy paper written by researchers at Â鶹´«Ã½ warns that the way UK research is funded may be undermining efforts to create genuinely collaborative partnerships with communities. published on: 15 June 2026 Volunteers help turn Whitley Bay beach into maths experiment Members of the public joined mathematicians from Â鶹´«Ã½ to create what organisers believe is the largest aperiodic tiling ever attempted on Whitley Bay beach. published on: 15 June 2026 Facts and figures
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