HAWKING IN POPULAR CULTURE
The eminent cosmologist was adopted by the media at large, ensuring his name spread far and wide
Hawking became such an inspiration that a film, The Theory of Everything, was released in 2014 about his remarkable early life. It was based on a memoir by wife Jane, and Eddie Redmayne won an Academy Award for playing the physicist.
Proof that Hawking had captured the public imagination followed the publication of his book, A Brief History of Time, in 1988. Despite being a challenging read, it became an instant bestseller, which has since been translated into more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies. Hawking went on to write a total of 15 books, including some for children with his daughter Lucy. He also made numerous TV appearances, including in his own series,
Stephen Hawking’s Universe, for the Discovery Channel in 2010.
The physicist showed his sense of fun by appearing in lighter entertainment from The
Simpsons and Futurama to Red Dwarf and Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he was seen playing cards with Einstein and Newton. He featured in several episodes of comedy The Big Bang Theory, and performed a skit with Little Britain’s David Walliams in which he turned into a Transformer robot. In another comedy sketch, shown on the
Monty Python Live (Mostly) shows in 2014, Hawking sang a version of Eric Idle’s The
Galaxy Song after running down Professor Brian Cox in his wheelchair.
Hawking helped make a number of TV advertisements. His voice was used for a BT TV commercial that was sampled by Pink Floyd for tracks on their albums The Division
Bell and The Endless River. One of his final broadcasts was a cameo as The Guide Mark II in the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Hexagonal Phase,
which aired on Radio 4 earlier this year.