It's Only A Theory. Image shows from L to R: Andy Hamilton, Reginald D Hunter. Copyright: Hat Trick Productions
It's Only A Theory

It's Only A Theory

  • TV panel show
  • BBC Four
  • 2009
  • 8 episodes (1 series)

High-brow panel show in which experts are given a comic inquisition by Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter. Stars Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter.

Press clippings

The use of props to add colour to a show that is, let's face it, better suited to Radio 4, is understandable. It doesn't stop the programme from being both amusing and informative, certainly. So it's just a shame that the toy horned helmets worn by Andy Hamilton, Reginald D Hunter and guest scrutineer Martha Kearney don't really support Julian Richards's theory that the Vikings were a force for good. Then again, a Viking shield might have helped ward off the spiky quips from Dr Peter Thompson, who believes our eyes don't tell us what's really out there.

Gill Crawford, Radio Times, 3rd November 2009

It's Only a Theory has Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter as resident hosts and together they discuss the relative merits of various scientific theories. The pair have starkly contrasting comic styles, but they nevertheless work well together and the banter they produce is consistently intelligent and amusing.

My only gripe with It's Only a Theory is that it's actually a radio show. The producers haven't even bothered to dress the set. Shut your eyes and you will miss absolutely nothing. There is a shredder, to which rejected theories are dramatically consigned, but even that makes a perfectly recognisable shredder noise.

Harry Venning, The Stage, 19th October 2009

Last Night's TV

Want to know about 1,000-year-old human beings? Then this is the show for you, says Sam Wollaston/

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 7th October 2009

"Nowadays, it seems like experts give birth to a new theory every few minutes," said Andy Hamilton at the beginning of It's Only a Theory. I don't know about that, but if so they're at least matched by comedians pupping new comedy-panel shows, most of which, sadly, are doomed to be tied in a sack and dropped into the swiftly flowing river of television oblivion. I'm guessing that It's Only a Theory isn't going to make it to adulthood, because it's very difficult to work out what it's for or how it's meant to work. A panel of two gag merchants (Hamilton and Reginald Hunter, who can both be funny) are joined by a celeb guest (it was Clare Balding this week) to offer peer group review on the theories of scientists and experts who quite like the idea of being on telly. They then say whether they've been approved or rejected, though it isn't clear on what basis they arrive at this decision and nobody gives a damn anyway. Last night, they batted around the ideas of a gerentologist who thinks the first 1,000-year-old person has already been born and a psychologist who believes that we shouldn't medicalise sadness - these two topics provoking a meandering and underwhelming blend of flippancy and bland earnestness. It isn't that the machinery doesn't work, it's that they completely forgot to put the machinery in. I can only hope it isn't distracting Hamilton from writing more episodes of Outnumbered.

Tom Sutcliffe, The Independent, 7th October 2009

With It's Only A Theory, BBC4 seem to have taken the unusual step of commissioning a Radio 4 comedy before it's even had a 6.30pm slot. Devised by the reliable Andy Hamilton, whose career takes in Shelley, Not The Nine O'Clock News, Drop The Dead Donkey, Armstrong And Miller and Outnumbered, it sees scientific experts bring their hypotheses to the studio where they are subjected to an interrogation by Hamilton, his regular sidekick, panel-show favourite Reginald D Hunter and a special guest, this week being the blokey Clare Balding. Like most of those Radio 4 shows it is amusing rather than funny and the best lines in this ep are delivered by ageing expert Aubrey De Grey, but it is nonetheless well worth a look.

TV Bite, 6th October 2009

We always welcome more TV time given over to Reginald D Hunter. Unfortunately, the format's a bit clunky in this new series, which sees Hunter teaming up with Andy Hamilton and special guests to chew over a new theory posited by an expert in their field. Still, Hunter does roll out some gems, with tonight's highlight being an argument between himself and Clare Balding over the virtues of Colin Firth. You can probably guess who wins.

Sharon Lougher, Metro, 6th October 2009

Reginald D Hunter interview

Reginald D. Hunter started doing stand-up for a bet and has gone on to appear on shows such as Have I Got News For You and QI. His new series, It's Only A Theory, starts soon on BBC Four.

Graeme Green, Metro, 28th September 2009

Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter claim It's Only A Theory

Filming has finished on It's Only A Theory, an eight x 30-minute entertainment programme for BBC Four that sees highly-qualified professionals and experts submitting their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of two comedians and a guest celebrity.

BBC Press Office, 3rd April 2009

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