Discovering the unknown

A Channel 4 programme attempted to identify the person behind The Falling man photograph, RTÉ documented Irish scientists, and the BBC discovered a Masterchef. Dermot Bolger reviews the week's televisionEach year on 11 September two vertical beams of light soar up into the New York skyline from Ground Zero, marking the spot where the Twin Towers stood. It is a technologically brilliant but impersonal tribute to the victims of that tragedy. For those yearning for a more human image to encapsulate that day one picture which has attracted cult status and myriad layers of meaning is the photo simply known as “The Falling Man”. 9/11: The Falling Man (Channel 4, Thursday, 9pm) was a rather self-regarding quest to unearth the identity of this anonymous worker captured by a photographer as he fell down the length of the building, having made the terrible choice between being burnt alive or deciding on his own fate.
Certain images can define an era, like the naked Vietnamese girl running from her burning village or a Vietcong police chief executing a man at close range on the street. In contrast to the violent images there exists a surreal grace about the falling man, a stillness within the well-dressed figure hurtling, head first, towards the ground, framed against the neat order of glass windows that will soon implode. The grace is partially achieved by how small the figure seems against the full shot of numerous floors. The image was striking enough for various US newspapers to print it the next day. The Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, an archetypical US small town gave it the entire length of its back page and never had a more vehement response. Readers were united in such outrage at being confronted by the image and the stark dilemma that had faced the jumper, that, in an act of collective self-censorship, this image (and other disturbing images of hordes of people taking their own lives by jumping) immediately disappeared from the American media.
9/11 had to be transformed into a heroic event and the images that people wanted were of brave fire-fighters and people who risked and lost their lives to save others. The images of the fallers however circulated underground and on the Internet. The image of the solitary man framed by the entire tower grew in mythical status. 9/11: The Falling Man argued that, rather than impersonal technological shafts of light, this uncomfortable image should be the true memorial to those who died. The documentary charted one journalist's quest to remove the stigma around the photo by trying to give the figure an identity and strip away the notion that the fallers had somehow tainted what was now national hallowed ground. In so much as it could be proven to be any one definite person, it seems likely that the faller was Jonathan Briley, a preacher's son who truly embraced life. The documentary, however, tried to have it both ways by saying that ultimately the photo's importance was that the figure could never be identified and therefore in the faller's anonymity he came to represent all the fallen. It's a valid proposition but if his true significance is his anonymity why make 90 minutes of television about trying to identify him?
With predecessors like Sir William Rowan Hamilton (Cabra's most famous graffitist) Irish science has a distinguished pedigree. However even 20 years ago there was a massive science brain drain from Ireland. That has been reversed with government investment in science and Flashes of Brilliance: The Cutting Edge of Irish Science (RTÉ 2, Thursday, 8pm). It celebrated the work of six leading contemporary Irish scientists working in such fields as stem cell research and genetics, who – among more important matters – have caused the Turf Club to tear up inaccurate paternity stud records going back 400 years. It was nicely made by New Decade Films for the Royal Irish Academy, but its problem as a piece of television is that it looked a bit too much like something made for the Royal Irish Academy. The opening especially had the feel of the sort of high-class video you view in a darkened room before being given a guided tour of an institution. However with the intense dumbing down of television it was intelligent and interesting and good to see the ongoing work of Irish scientists being acknowledged.
It is too grandiose to call cooking a science, but some sound scientific principals should still be applied to the culinary arts. Chief among these is the maxim “don't forget to cook the food”.  After bringing its remaining three contestants on an epic journey from the QE2 to the North Pole, the grand finale of Masterchef Goes Large (BBC 2, Friday, 6.30pm) concluded with all three having two hours to cook a meal of their choice for the judges. One served up pork raw in the middle, another served up a partridge totally uncooked and the winner served up brilliant French cuisine. Far be it for me to impart culinary advice – but, if you are thinking of entering next year, bring enough coins for the gas meter.