'Tomorrow's World' confined to history as science takes a battering in the ratings

It started 38 years ago with a logo comprised of ball bearings, backed by a bubbly jazz theme. It brought the cell phone and the disposable camera to a new audience. But now the BBC Television science programme Tomorrow's World is going the way of some of the inventions it featured ­ such as centrally heated ski poles and squash ball warmers ­ and being axed.

Executives have told staff that the weekly magazine series will not return this year, although longer single-item programmes under the same "brand" are planned. A long-term decline in ratings, and changes in early evening television habits and how science is seen in society, have contributed to the move.

Sarah Hargreaves, the BBC creative director for popular features, insistedTomorrow's World was not history. "We expect to broadcast as many hours as last year. But it's not coming back in the old magazine format. Having three presenters in a studio doesn't seem to cut through as it did." The format's ability to introduce young people to a range of scientific ideas had also palled because modern children knew what they were interested in, she added. "If you start the programme with something about a treatment for arthritis, any young person is going to turn over."

Instead, the Tomorrow's World team will turn to other projects, such as a real-life version of ER provisionally called Trauma Hospital. Other shows will go under the Tomorrow's World name. "We will have a series on hospital medicine, and we have been developing our inventions programmes. Tomorrow's World needs to evolve, along with all TV," Ms Hargreaves said.

First launched in 1965, when it was fronted by Raymond Baxter ­ who memorably demonstrated a bulletproof jacket by being shot ­ the show peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, when its presenters Judith Hann and Howard Stableford drew audiences of more than 10 million.

When Peter Snow and Philippa Forrester took over presenting duties in 1999, ratings were still a respectable five million, but by the last series they had fallen to about three million.

Mixing short items about new inventions and investigations into emerging scientific disciplines, Tomorrow's World introduced people to a myriad of inventions we now take for granted ­ as well as some that have since vanished. Among the former were the CD, the CAT scanner, pocket calculator, the fax and the home computer. Items that fell victim to what the team called "the curse of TW" included a snooker-playing robot and a fishing rod that glowed in the dark.

The decision to axe the programme disappointed former presenters. Vivienne Parry, who was on the show from 1994 to 1997, said she felt it had lost its edge. "Today's versions seemed much fluffier, without such groundbreaking science ­ it's just gadgets," she said. "[Ending it] is a further dilution of seeing science as an interesting, fascinating career; yet here we are as a nation moaning ... that people don't want to be scientists."

But did the gadgets catch on?

Inventions that made the grade

CD player
Cellular radio
Cell phones
Fax machines
Home computers
Phonecards
Personal stereos
Disposable cameras
"Suspenderless stockings"
Satellite TV
Tilting trains ­ a "new concept in rail transport" (1969)

Ideas that fell by the wayside

Centrally heated ski poles
Real plants that double as television aerials
Fishing rod that glowsin the dark
Snooker-playing robot
Paper suits
Robot sheep shearer
Worms as a protein source
Pills for an "all chemical meal" ­ prediction for 1996 made30 years earlier.