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EOFFREY Rush’s eyes well with ecstasy, his unkempt silver hair dances wildly. The veteran actor is Albert Einstein, the pop face of 20thcentury science. Einstein — one of the fathers of modern physics and Poindexter behind the theory of relativity. And Einstein the fornicator, in the peak eruptions of shagging his office assistant.

No, this isn’t a science club’s Xrated YouTube fantasy; it is National Geographic channel’s first foray into a scripted TV drama series. Judging from this opening sequence, Genius is armed with enough provocation to vie for a serious chunk of the TV audience. Series networks, beware.

It is more than meticulous period costume and melodrama produced by some of the best screen writers, filmographers and actors in the business. Being the product of National Geographic, there is also enough fidelity to Einstein’s theoretical work to keep scholars of early 20th-century science hooked.

And for those for whom the periodic table holds little appeal, Genius offers an intriguing glimpse at the personality and private life of this physics rock star.

The script is based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe and promises to reveal everything about the man, from his most intimate thoughts to his tumultuous marriages.

According to Kelly Souders, one of the writers employed to translate Isaacson’s work to the screen, Einstein’s relationships surprised them the most.

His two difficult marriages — one of which was to his first cousin Elsa — and affairs, while contentious,