Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Life in the Universe
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 2/24/1966
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: British
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0587950/ * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Miller
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2004005345
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Miller, Ben, 1966-
Profession or occupation:
Actor
Found in: Johnny English, 2004: credits (Ben Miller; cast)
Internet movie database, Jan. 19, 2004 (Ben Miller, b.
1966)
The aliens are coming!, the extraordinary science behind
our search for life in the universe, 2016: ECIP t.p.
(Ben Miller) data view (actor; science writer)
Ben Miller on the search for alien life. Guardian, Feb. 12,
2016, viewed June 17, 2016 (Ben Miller; abandoned PhD in
physics at Cambridge for career in comedy; published
It's not rocket science, 2012; now author of The aliens
are coming)
IMDB, Internet movie database, at Ben Miller, viewed June
17, 2016 (b. Feb. 24, 1966, London, England; Bennett
Evan Miller; halfway through PhD in physics at
Cambridge; went into comedy; Armstrong and Miller Show,
1997; Johnny English, 2003; BBC's Death in paradise,
[television series] 2011; author of It's not rocket
science, 2012)
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
PERSONAL
Born February 24, 1966, London, England; son of Michael (a college lecturer) and Marion (an English professor) Miller; married Belinda Stewart-Wilson, 2004, divorced 2011; married Jessica Parker, 2013; children: (with Stewart-Wilson) Jackson, (with Parker) Harrison and Lana.
EDUCATION:St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge University, undergraduate degree; attended graduate school at Cambridge University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, comedian, director, and actor. Has appeared on British and American television, on stage, and in films. Television series and movies include Murder Most Horrid, 1991; The Pall Bearer’s Revue, 1992; The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, 1993; Mr Don & Mr George, 1993; Paul Merton: The Series, 1993; Casualty, 1995; Look at the State We’re In! (miniseries), 1995; The Armstrong and Miller Show, 1997-2001, 2007-2010; The Jack Docherty Show, 1997; Hunting Venus (television movie), 1999; Coming Soon (television movie), 1999; Passion Killers (television movie), 1999; Dr. Terrible’s House of Horrible, 2001; Surrealissimo: The Scandalous Success of Salvador Dali (television movie), 2002; The Book Group, 2002; Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (television movie), 2002; Agatha Christie’s Marple, 2004; Doc Martin, 2004-05; Malice Aforethought (television movie), 2005; Popetown, 2006; Saxondale, 2006; Primeval, 2007-11; Moving Wallpaper: The Mole (television movie), 2006; Moving Wallpaper, 2008-09; The Catherine Tate Show, 2009; Comedy Showase, 2011; Death in Paradise, 2011-14; This Is Jinsy, 2014; Dr. Who, 2014; The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (television movie), 2014; Horrible Histories, 2015; Comic Relief: Monkey’s Monumental Mission (television movie), 2015; Asylum (miniseries), 2015; Ballot Monkeys, 2015; I Want My Wife Back, 2016; and Tracey Ullman’s Show, 2017. Films include The Silence of the Lambs, 1993; Sardines, 1995; The Parole Officer, 2001; Johnny English, 2003; The Actors, 2003; The Prince and Me, 2004; Razzle Dazzle, 2007; The Key Party, 2009; The Engagement, 2011; What We Did on Our Holiday, 2014; and Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism, 2015.
AWARDS:Cowinner of the first BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for comedy, 1998, for coauthoring the interactive game MindGym; also co-winner of a BAFTA for The Armstrong and Miller Show, 2010.
WRITINGS
Writer for television shows, including The Armstrong and Miller Show, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), twenty-seven episodes, 1997-2001; twelve episodes, 2009-2010. Coauthor of the interactive game about thinking titled MindGym, c. 1998.
SIDELIGHTS
Ben Miller, born Bennet Evan Miller, is an English writer, comedian, actor, and director. The son of educators, Miller is best known in Great Britain as half of Armstrong and Miller, a comedy duo with Alexander Armstrong. The duo also had their own successful British television show, Armstrong and Miller, which they starred in and wrote. Miller’s path to comedy and acting was an unusual one. He was studying for his doctorate in physics and writing his thesis when he decided to quit science and become a comedian and actor. Miller was led to this decision by previous experiences driving around the judges of the National Student Drama Festival and subsequently joining the Footlights Dramatic Club in 1989. After leaving school, Miller moved to London, where he eventually met Armstrong. “Science has always been an inspiration for me in comedy because science is essentially about cutting through the bulls*** really, and so is comedy,” Miller noted in an interview with online Telegraph (London, England) contributor Matthew Stadlen.
It's Not Rocket Science
In his first book, It’s Not Rocket Science, Miller discusses several areas of science that interest him. He begins, however, with a chapter explaining the origins of his dual interests in science and entertainment. He discusses his time at Cambridge studying physics and his subsequent decision to quit school and embark on a career in entertainment. The next chapter delves into the science of atom smashing and the Large Hadron Collider. The following chapter focuses on outer space, the universe, and what scientists have found there from an astronomer’s perspective. The chapter includes discussions on topics such as asteroids, the formation of the planets, and black holes. Other topics in the book include genetics and the serious threats to Earth via such potential catastrophes as climate change.
“There is a lot of interesting material about science subjects here,” wrote SFcrowsnest Web site contributor G.F. Willmetts. Noting that It’s Not Rocket Science “generally seems pitched at bright 15-year-olds,” National Online contributor John Henzell went on to remark: Miller “still tackles meaty topics such as the Higgs boson particle, DNA, black holes, genetics and dark matter.”
The Aliens Are Coming
In his next book, The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe, Miller draws from both his science and entertainment backgrounds to provide an entertaining examination of the question of whether there is life beyond Earth. In the process, he relates the history of the effort to find the answer to that question. “You might expect such a book to be boring and inaccessible—and there are a few scary-looking equations—but Miller’s comedic background means that he can explain difficult concepts in a way that allows even the sleepiest reader to understand,” noted a Guardian (London, England) Web site contributor.
Miller addresses a wide range of topics, beginning with a discussion of the first ships from Earth to reach interstellar space. In the next chapter he turns his attention to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and the SETI Institute, a coordinated effort by astronomers using state-of-the-art telescopes and various scientific technologies to search for signs of extraterrestrials. Miller also devotes a chapter to the planets and another to an examination of aliens and supposed alien discoveries, from the UFO that many believed crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, to various pilot reports of UFO sightings.
Miller, however, primarily focuses on the scientific pursuit of life on other planets, noting that scientists have already confirmed that such life can exist in environments far different from the one found on Earth. In doing so, he looks for help from various areas of science, from the Big Bang theory of the universe’s origins to bacteria and how understanding life on Earth will help scientists make better predictions about life elsewhere. Booklist contributor David Pitt called The Aliens Are Coming! a “rousing history of the search for extraterrestrial life.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 15, 2016, David Pitt, review of The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe, p. 7.
Grocer, January 18, 2014, “Monkey Miller Crosses PG Tips” author quote, p. 81.
Independent (London England), January 12, 2014, review of It’s Not Rocket Science, p. 20.
Spectator, November 30, 2013, Lloyd Evans, “Miller’s Tale: Lloyd Evans Talks to Ben Miller about Politics, Physics and His Part in The Duck House,” p. 59.
ONLINE
Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com (July 1, 2016), review of The Aliens Are Coming!
IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/ (March 24, 2017), author filmography.
National Online, http://www.thenational.ae/ (September 29, 2012), John Henzell, review of It’s Not Rocket Science.
Purple Owl Reviews, http://sileldaowl.blogspot.com/ (May 14, 2016), review of The Aliens Are Coming!
SFcrowsnest, http://sfcrowsnest.org.uk/ (February 21, 2016), G.F. Willmetts, review of The Aliens Are Coming!
Telegraph Online (London, England), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (March 11, 2016), Matthew Stadlen, “Ben Miller: ‘Science Has Always Been My Comedy Inspiration.’”
Tonstant Weader Reviews, https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com (March 24, 2017), review of The Aliens Are Coming!
Date of Birth 24 February 1966, London, England, UK
Birth Name Bennet Evan MIller
Height 5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Mini Bio (1)
Halfway through a PhD in physics at Cambridge University, Ben met Alexander Armstrong (who was also studying there) in 1992. Instead of finishing his PhD, Ben chose to scrap science for comedy and started playing at the Comedy Club Footlights, Cambridge. After four years of touring pubs and underground comedy clubs, the pair appeared on 'Saturday Night' as (now one of their most well-known sketches) Euro-Rock duo 'Strijka.' The year 1996 saw the pair nominated for the Perrier Award and were given their first commissioned series, The Armstrong and Miller Show (1997). Broadcast first on the Paramount Channel, which was then followed by three further series shown on Channel Four (1997, 1999 & 2001). Ben and Alexander took "The Armstrong and Miller Show" on tour in November 2001 and did a 17-day back-to-back stint. The success of "Armstrong and Miller" (1997)_ gave Ben a springboard to work on other projects. _Passion Killers (1999)_ and The Blind Date (2000) are just two of the television films that enabled Ben to go more mainstream and show that he is capable of straight acting as well as his cheeky-chappy side shown in The Armstrong and Miller Show (1997). Ben is not shy of the big screen either. August 2001 saw the release of Steve Coogan's: The Parole Officer (2001), in which Ben played small-time criminal Colin; in 1999, he starred alongside Ray Winstone and Robert Carlyle in the comedy drama_ There's Only One Jimmy Grimble (2000)_. Most people may not recognize Ben as the voice of ITV's Digital Monkey that stars alongside fellow comedian Johnny Vegas in the infamous adverts, which has led to a wad of merchandise and a string of 15-minute programs yet to be shown. March 2002 saw Ben as a snotty hotel concierge in Jez Butterworth's film Birthday Girl (2001). With further future projects lined up for 2002 (including a six-part series called The Book Group (2002), to be shown later on), only time will tell if the 35-year-old will remain underground or leap out into the mainstream audience.
Since 2003, Ben has continued his successful solo and comedy career. He played Rowan Atkinson's sidekick Bough in the 2003's blockbuster Johnny English (2003). He went to Canada to film The Prince and Me (2004). Mainstream audiences started to take notice in 2005, when The Worst Week of My Life (2004) aired in BBC1. It was so successful that a second series was commissioned for the following year. In 2006, the BBC wanted a pilot comedy show from Ben and Alexander - they hadn't made a show together since The Armstrong and Miller Show (1997) (4th series) which aired in 2001. This pilot led to The Armstrong and Miller Show (2007) not only coming back to television but to a more mainstream audience - being shown on BBC1 on Friday nights in 2007. After 14 years on the comedy circuit, the pair were finally rewarded with a BAFTA for best comedy program in 2010. Four series later, the duo decided to tour the UK again and played 62 shows up and down the country between September and November 2010.
Summer of 2011: He released his directorial debut film Huge (2010).
Winter of 2011 saw Ben in the Caribbean for the BBC's Death in Paradise (2011).
His first book, "It's Not Rocket Science," is being released in summer 2012.
Ben was in the theater production of "The Ladykillers" in the West End.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: jas
Spouse (2)
Jessica Parker (September 2013 - present) (1 child)
Belinda Stewart-Wilson (2004 - 2011) (divorced) (1 child)
Trade Mark (1)
Up until the end of 2001 - Ben had bleached blond hair
Trivia (6)
His PhD thesis at Cambridge was on "novel quantum effects in quasi-zero dimensional mesoscopic electrical systems." (Sunday Times).
Attended Malbank School in Nantwich, Cheshire, until 1984.
London UK: esing and filming. Has spent 5 months of 2012 in Guadeloupe filming series 2 of 'Death in Paradise' (8 episodes), due to be broadcast on January 8th 2013, BBC1 at 9pm. Has recently been filming a role in the film 'Molly Moon'. [January 2013]
Currently in the theatre production of The LadyKillers in the West End. [November 2011]
He and his ex-wife Belinda Stewart-Wilson have a son named Sonny (born in 2006).
He and his wife Jessica Parker have a son named Harrison (born in 2011).
Filmography
Jump to: Actor | Writer | Producer | Miscellaneous Crew | Soundtrack | Director | Camera and Electrical Department | Self | Archive footage
Hide Hide Actor (68 credits)
2017/I The Escape (Short) (post-production)
Mike
2017 Paddington 2 (post-production)
2015 Horrible Science (TV Series) (post-production)
Edward Jenner / Thomas Malthus / Mc Taggart
2017 Tracey Ullman's Show (TV Series)
Rupert Murdoch
- Episode #2.5 (2017) ... Rupert Murdoch
- Episode #2.3 (2017) ... Rupert Murdoch
- Episode #2.2 (2017) ... Rupert Murdoch
- Episode #2.1 (2017) ... Rupert Murdoch
2016 The Silent Man (Short)
The Delivery Driver
2016 I Want My Wife Back (TV Series)
Murray
- Episode #1.6 (2016) ... Murray
- Episode #1.5 (2016) ... Murray
- Episode #1.4 (2016) ... Murray
- Episode #1.3 (2016) ... Murray
- Episode #1.2 (2016) ... Murray
Show all 6 episodes
2015 Ballot Monkeys (TV Series)
Kevin Sturridge
- Episode #1.5 (2015) ... Kevin Sturridge
- Episode #1.4 (2015) ... Kevin Sturridge
- Episode #1.3 (2015) ... Kevin Sturridge
- Episode #1.2 (2015) ... Kevin Sturridge
- Episode #1.1 (2015) ... Kevin Sturridge
2015 Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Mr. Alabaster
2015 Mr Bean: Funeral (Video)
2015 Asylum (TV Mini-Series)
Daniel Hern
- Public Relations (2015) ... Daniel Hern
- Project Siren (2015) ... Daniel Hern
- Strange Bedfellows (2015) ... Daniel Hern
2015 Comic Relief: Monkey's Monumental Mission (TV Movie)
Monkey (voice)
2015 Horrible Histories (TV Series)
King John
- Crooked King John and Magna Carta (2015) ... King John
2015 What We Did on Our Holiday: Deleted Scenes (Video short)
Gavin (uncredited)
2014 The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm (TV Movie)
Mr. Bullimore
2014 What We Did on Our Holiday
Gavin
2014 Doctor Who (TV Series)
The Sheriff of Nottingham
- Robot of Sherwood (2014) ... The Sheriff of Nottingham
2011-2014 Death in Paradise (TV Series)
DI Richard Poole
- Episode #3.1 (2014) ... DI Richard Poole
- Episode #2.8 (2013) ... DI Richard Poole
- Episode #2.7 (2013) ... DI Richard Poole
- Episode #2.6 (2013) ... DI Richard Poole
- Episode #2.5 (2013) ... DI Richard Poole
Show all 17 episodes
2014 This Is Jinsy (TV Series)
Chief Accountant / Berpetta
- Acco! (2014) ... Chief Accountant / Berpetta
2011 Comedy Showcase (TV Series)
Felix
- Felix & Murdo (2011) ... Felix
2011 The Engagement
Bar Tender
2007-2011 Primeval (TV Series)
James Lester
- Episode #5.6 (2011) ... James Lester
- Episode #5.5 (2011) ... James Lester
- Episode #5.4 (2011) ... James Lester (credit only)
- Episode #5.3 (2011) ... James Lester (credit only)
- Episode #5.2 (2011) ... James Lester
Show all 36 episodes
2011 Episodes (TV Series)
Ben Miller
- Episode One (2011) ... Ben Miller
2010 Primeval: Webisodes (TV Mini-Series)
James Lester
2007-2010 The Armstrong and Miller Show (TV Series)
Various Characters
- Episode #3.6 (2010) ... Various Characters
- Episode #3.5 (2010) ... Various Characters
- Episode #3.4 (2010) ... Various Characters
- Episode #3.3 (2010) ... Various Characters
- Episode #3.2 (2010) ... Various Characters
Show all 19 episodes
2010 4.3.2.1.
Mr. Phillips
2009 The Key Party
Mark
2009 The Catherine Tate Show (TV Series)
Ghost of Christmas Past
- Nan's Christmas Carol (2009) ... Ghost of Christmas Past
2009 Within the Whirlwind
Krasny
2008-2009 Moving Wallpaper (TV Series)
Jonathan Pope
- Episode #2.6 (2009) ... Jonathan Pope
- Episode #2.5 (2009) ... Jonathan Pope
- Episode #2.4 (2009) ... Jonathan Pope
- Episode #2.3 (2009) ... Jonathan Pope
- Episode #2.2 (2009) ... Jonathan Pope
Show all 18 episodes
2009 Primeval Evolved (Video Game)
James Lester
2008 Moving Wallpaper: The Mole (TV Series short)
Jonathan Pope
- Episode #1.12 (2008) ... Jonathan Pope (uncredited)
- Episode #1.10 (2008) ... Jonathan Pope (voice, uncredited)
2007 Razzle Dazzle
Mr. Jonathon
2004-2006 The Worst Week of My Life (TV Series)
Howard Steel
- The Worst Christmas of My Life: Part 3 (2006) ... Howard Steel
- The Worst Christmas of My Life: Part 2 (2006) ... Howard Steel
- The Worst Christmas of My Life: Part 1 (2006) ... Howard Steel
- Sunday (2005) ... Howard Steel
- Saturday (2005) ... Howard Steel
Show all 17 episodes
2006 Saxondale (TV Series)
Bernard Langley
- Episode #1.6 (2006) ... Bernard Langley
2006 Popetown (TV Series)
The Priest
- Derby Day (2006) ... The Priest
- Day Trip (2006) ... The Priest
- Trapped (2006) ... The Priest
- The Big Fight (2006) ... The Priest
- The Beautiful Game (2006) ... The Priest
Show all 10 episodes
2004-2005 Doc Martin (TV Series)
Stewart / Stewart James
- Out of the Woods (2005) ... Stewart
- The Portwenn Effect (2004) ... Stewart James
2005 Starry Night (Short)
2005 Malice Aforethought (TV Movie)
Dr. Edmund Bickleigh
2004 Agatha Christie's Marple (TV Series)
Basil Blake
- Agatha Christie's Marple (2004) ... Basil Blake
2004 The Prince and Me
Soren
2003 The Actors
Clive
2003 Johnny English
Bough, English's Sidekick
2002 Jeffrey Archer: The Truth (TV Movie)
Roland Moxley-Nemesis
2002 The Book Group (TV Series)
Martin Logan
- Dark Alley (2002) ... Martin Logan
- Bedtime Stories (2002) ... Martin Logan
2002 Surrealissimo: The Scandalous Success of Salvador Dali (TV Movie)
Yoyotte
2001 Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible (TV Series)
Rebenor
- Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust (2001) ... Rebenor
2001 Birthday Girl
Concierge
2001 The Parole Officer
Colin
2001 Tip of My Tongue (Short)
Dave
1997-2001 The Armstrong and Miller Show (TV Series)
Various Roles
- Episode #4.7 (2001) ... Various Roles
- Episode #4.6 (2001) ... Various Roles
- Episode #4.5 (2001) ... Various Roles
- Episode #4.4 (2001) ... Various Roles
- Episode #4.3 (2001) ... Various Roles
Show all 27 episodes
2000 You Can't Dance (Short)
2000 There's Only One Jimmy Grimble
Johnny Two Dogs
2000 The Blind Date
Joe Maxwell
2000/II Cinderella (TV Movie)
Dandini
1999 Coming Soon (TV Movie)
Ben
1999 Passion Killers (TV Movie)
Nick
1999 Hunting Venus (TV Movie)
Gavin
1999 Plunkett & Macleane
Dixon
1997 The Jack Docherty Show (TV Series)
Various
1995 Sardines (TV Movie)
Simon
1995 Look at the State We're In! (TV Mini-Series)
Marty
- The Status Quo (1995) ... Marty
- Nanny Knows Best (1995) ... Marty
- Legal System (1995) ... Marty
- Local Government (1995) ... Marty
- Secrecy (1995) ... Marty
Show all 6 episodes
1995 Casualty (TV Series)
Daniel Murdoch
- Trials and Tribulations (1995) ... Daniel Murdoch
1993 Paul Merton: The Series (TV Series)
Various Characters
- Episode #2.6 (1993) ... Various Characters
- Episode #2.5 (1993) ... Various Characters
- Episode #2.4 (1993) ... Various Characters
- Episode #2.3 (1993) ... Various Characters
- Episode #2.2 (1993) ... Various Characters
Show all 6 episodes
1993 Mr Don & Mr George (TV Series)
Client
- You've Eaten My Future (1993) ... Client
1993 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (TV Series)
French Officer
- Palestine, October 1917 (1993) ... French Officer
1993 French and Saunders (TV Series)
Book customer #2
- The Silence of the Lambs (1993) ... Book customer #2
1992 The Pall Bearer's Revue (TV Series)
- Episode #1.5 (1992)
- Episode #1.3 (1992)
1991 Murder Most Horrid (TV Series)
P.C. Watkins
- He Died a Death (1991) ... P.C. Watkins
Hide Hide Writer (4 credits)
2009-2010 The Armstrong and Miller Show (TV Series) (written by - 12 episodes)
- Episode #3.6 (2010) ... (written by)
- Episode #3.5 (2010) ... (written by)
- Episode #3.4 (2010) ... (written by)
- Episode #3.3 (2010) ... (written by)
- Episode #3.2 (2010) ... (written by)
Show all 12 episodes
2010 Huge (screenplay)
1997-2001 The Armstrong and Miller Show (TV Series) (writer - 27 episodes)
- Episode #4.7 (2001) ... (writer)
- Episode #4.6 (2001) ... (writer)
- Episode #4.5 (2001) ... (writer)
- Episode #4.4 (2001) ... (writer)
- Episode #4.3 (2001) ... (writer)
Show all 27 episodes
1995 Sardines (TV Movie)
Hide Hide Producer (2 credits)
2011 Comedy Showcase (TV Series) (executive producer - 1 episode)
- Felix & Murdo (2011) ... (executive producer)
2007-2010 The Armstrong and Miller Show (TV Series) (executive producer - 19 episodes)
- Episode #3.6 (2010) ... (executive producer)
- Episode #3.5 (2010) ... (executive producer)
- Episode #3.4 (2010) ... (executive producer)
- Episode #3.3 (2010) ... (executive producer)
- Episode #3.2 (2010) ... (executive producer)
Show all 19 episodes
Hide Hide Miscellaneous Crew (1 credit)
2006 Saxondale (TV Series) (script editor - 6 episodes)
- Episode #1.7 (2006) ... (script editor)
- Episode #1.6 (2006) ... (script editor)
- Episode #1.5 (2006) ... (script editor)
- Episode #1.4 (2006) ... (script editor)
- Episode #1.3 (2006) ... (script editor)
Show all 6 episodes
Hide Hide Soundtrack (3 credits)
Timeshift (TV Series documentary) (lyrics - 1 episode, 2008) (performer - 1 episode, 2008)
- The Comic Songbook (2008) ... (lyrics: "The Rohypnol Song") / (performer: "The Rohypnol Song" - as Armstrong & Miller)
2007 Razzle Dazzle (performer: "Gold")
2000/II Cinderella (TV Movie) (performer: "Finale")
Hide Hide Director (3 credits)
2010 Huge
2006 Saxondale (TV Series) (1 episode)
- Episode #1.1 (2006)
2005 Starry Night (Short)
Hide Hide Camera and Electrical Department (1 credit)
2009 The Key Party (camera operator)
Hide Hide Self (66 credits)
2016 Brains of Britain (or How Quizzing Became Cool) (TV Movie documentary)
Himself - Narrator (voice)
2016 We Love Sitcom (TV Movie)
Himself
2016 It's Not Rocket Science (TV Series)
Himself - Presenter
- Episode #1.3 (2016) ... Himself - Presenter
- Episode #1.2 (2016) ... Himself - Presenter
- Episode #1.1 (2016) ... Himself - Presenter
2007-2016 Loose Women (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #20.108 (2016) ... Himself
- Episode #19.97 (2015) ... Himself
- Episode #18.58 (2013) ... Himself
- Episode #16.114 (2012) ... Himself
- Episode #13.127 (2009) ... Himself
Show all 9 episodes
2016 Would I Lie to You? (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #9.9 (2016) ... Himself
2015 Celebrity Squares (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #2.8 (2015) ... Himself
2015 Mel & Sue (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.18 (2015) ... Himself
2015 Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (TV Series)
Himself - Panelist
- The Pig Knows You're Frightened (2015) ... Himself - Panelist
2014 Bruce's Hall of Fame (TV Movie)
Himself
2014 The Apprentice: You're Fired! (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #9.12 (2014) ... Himself
2014 Weekend Kitchen with Waitrose (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #2.14 (2014) ... Himself
2014 The Chase (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 13 December 2014 (2014) ... Himself
2014 Crackanory (TV Series)
Himself - Storyteller
- Man's Best Friend & Return to Sender (2014) ... Himself - Storyteller
2012-2014 Sunday Brunch (TV Series)
Himself - Guest
- Episode #1.131 (2014) ... Himself - Guest
- Episode #1.40 (2013) ... Himself - Guest
- Episode #1.29 (2012) ... Himself - Guest
2014 Doctor Who Extra (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- Robot of Sherwood (2014) ... Himself
2008-2014 This Morning (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 13 January 2014 (2014) ... Himself
- Episode dated 21 April 2008 (2008) ... Himself
2013 Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty (TV Movie documentary)
Himself (uncredited)
2013 The Science of Doctor Who (TV Movie documentary)
Himself - Audience Member (uncredited)
2013 My Hero (TV Series documentary)
Himself - Presenter
- Ben Miller on Tony Hancock (2013) ... Himself - Presenter
2013 Room 101 (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #13.7 (2013) ... Himself
2013 National Television Awards (TV Special)
Himself - Presenter
2007-2012 The Wright Stuff (TV Series)
Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #17.140 (2012) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #16.85 (2011) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #11.52 (2009) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #10.35 (2009) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
- Episode #9.224 (2008) ... Himself - Guest Panelist
Show all 7 episodes
2010-2011 Breakfast (TV Series)
Himself - Comedian, Actor and Physicist / Himself - Comedian / Himself - Actor
- Episode dated 10 January 2011 (2011) ... Himself - Comedian, Actor and Physicist
- Episode dated 24 November 2010 (2010) ... Himself - Comedian
- Episode dated 9 October 2010 (2010) ... Himself - Actor
2011 Horizon (TV Series documentary)
Himself - Presenter
- What Is One Degree? (2011) ... Himself - Presenter
2010 Fry and Laurie Reunited (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
2010 Argumental (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #3.10 (2010) ... Himself
2010 Shooting Stars (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #7.2 (2010) ... Himself
2010 Are You Having a Laugh? TV and Disability (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
2010 The 5 O'Clock Show (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.14 (2010) ... Himself
2010 The British Academy Television Awards (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
2009 Steve Coogan: The Inside Story (TV Movie)
Himself
2009 The Story of Slapstick (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
2009 The New Paul O'Grady Show (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 15 October 2009 (2009) ... Himself
2002-2009 Never Mind the Buzzcocks (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #23.1 (2009) ... Himself
- Episode #10.7 (2002) ... Himself
2009 Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #17.4 (2009) ... Himself
2009 The Big Food Fight (TV Series)
Himself - Guest
- Episode #1.3 (2009) ... Himself - Guest
2009 You Have Been Watching (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.7 (2009) ... Himself
2009 Chris Moyles Quiz Night (TV Series)
Himself
- Patsy Kensit, Abbey Clancy and Ben Miller (2009) ... Himself
2009 The Justin Lee Collins Show (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.3 (2009) ... Himself
2009 Comic Relief 2009 (TV Special)
2009 QI (TV Series)
Himself
- Future (2009) ... Himself
2008 The Royal Variety Performance 2008 (TV Movie)
Himself
2008 A Taste of My Life (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- Thandie Newton (2008) ... Himself
2008 An Audience with Neil Diamond (TV Movie)
Himself - Audience Member (uncredited)
2008 The F Word (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- Episode #4.3 (2008) ... Himself
2008 Empire Movie Awards 2008 (TV Special)
Himself
2008 Lily Allen and Friends (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.3 (2008) ... Himself
2008 TV Burp (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #7.2 (2008) ... Himself (uncredited)
2008 Happy Hour (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #2.2 (2008) ... Himself
2008 Thank God You're Here (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.1 (2008) ... Himself
2007 Happy Birthday BAFTA (TV Movie)
2007 Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- Episode #4.9 (2007) ... Himself
2007 I Blame the Spice Girls: The Monster Quiz of the Decade (TV Movie)
Himself
2007 Dancing with the Stars (TV Series)
Himself - Audience Member
- Episode #6.4 (2007) ... Himself - Audience Member
2003-2007 Richard & Judy (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 9 February 2007 (2007) ... Himself
- Episode dated 18 January 2006 (2006) ... Himself
- Episode dated 8 April 2005 (2005) ... Himself
- Episode dated 16 July 2004 (2004) ... Himself
- Episode dated 4 April 2003 (2003) ... Himself
2006 8 Out of 10 Cats (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #2.1 (2006) ... Himself
2002 Have I Got News for You (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #23.2 (2002) ... Himself
2002 Johnny Vaughan Tonight (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 16 February 2002 (2002) ... Himself
2001 The Big Breakfast (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 29 October 2001 (2001) ... Himself
2001 I Love the 1990s (TV Series documentary)
Himself - Comedian
- I Love 1996 (2001) ... Himself - Comedian
2001 Liquid News (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 31 July 2001 (2001) ... Himself
2001 I Love 1980's (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- I Love 1988 (2001) ... Himself
- I Love 1982 (2001)
- I Love 1981 (2001)
- I Love 1980 (2001) ... Himself
2000 The 11 O'Clock Show (TV Series)
Himself - Special Guest
- Episode #4.24 (2000) ... Himself - Special Guest
- Episode #4.11 (2000) ... Himself - Special Guest
- Episode #4.2 (2000) ... Himself - Special Guest
1998 Not a Lot of People Know That (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.6 (1998) ... Himself
- Episode #1.5 (1998) ... Himself
- Episode #1.4 (1998) ... Himself
- Episode #1.1 (1998) ... Himself
1997 Space Cadets (TV Series)
Himself
- Stingrays vs. Thunderbirds (1997) ... Himself
1996 Saturday Live (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #1.5 (1996) ... Himself
Hide Hide Archive footage (7 credits)
2016 Good Morning Britain (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode dated 17 November 2016 (2016) ... Himself
2015 Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled (TV Series)
Himself - Panelist
- The Lips and Arseholes of Alan Davies (2015) ... Himself - Panelist
2011 QI Genesis (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
2010 Argumental (TV Series)
Himself
- Episode #3.13 (2010) ... Himself
2009 Never Mind the Buzzcocks (TV Series)
Himself
- Where Are They Now? (2009) ... Himself
2002 The Very Best of 'Have I Got News for You' (Video)
Himself
1999 The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Daredevils of the Desert (Video)
French Officer
Ben Miller
Ben Miller.jpg
Miller at the 2008 BAFTA Television Awards
Born Bennet Evan Miller
24 February 1966 (age 51)
London, England
Education Natural Sciences
Alma mater St Catharine's College, Cambridge
Occupation Comedian, director, actor
Spouse(s)
Belinda Stewart-Wilson (m. 2004–11; divorced)
Jessica Parker (m. 2013)
Children 3
Bennet Evan "Ben" Miller (born 24 February 1966)[1] is an English comedian, actor and director. He is best known as one half of comedy double act Armstrong and Miller, with Alexander Armstrong. Miller and Armstrong wrote and starred in the Channel 4 sketch show Armstrong and Miller, as well as the BBC sketch show The Armstrong & Miller Show.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Production
4 Awards
5 Personal life
6 Filmography
7 References
8 External links
Early life and education
Miller was born in London, England and grew up in Nantwich, Cheshire.[citation needed] His paternal grandfather was a Lithuanian Jewish tailor who emigrated to the UK and lived in London's East End.[2] He anglicised the family surname. Ben's father Michael Miller was a lecturer in American Literature at the City of Birmingham Polytechnic; and his mother Marion was from Wales. She taught English at South Cheshire College.[2] He has two younger sisters, Leah and Bronwen.
Miller was educated at Malbank School and Sixth Form College, his local comprehensive school in Nantwich, Cheshire. He studied Natural Sciences at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate, he participated in theatre with Rachel Weisz, and also dated her.[3][4] He remained at Cambridge to study for a PhD in solid state physics,[5] with his thesis titled Novel quantum effects in low-temperature quasi-zero-dimensional mesoscopic electron systems.[6][7]
He abandoned completion of his thesis to pursue a career in comedy.[6] Miller's interest in comedy began when a friend asked him to help ferry around the judges of the National Student Drama Festival, which was being held that year in Cambridge.[8] Having already finished his undergraduate degree, he joined the Footlights in 1989, working with Andy Parsons, David Wolstencroft and Sue Perkins, and went on to direct a revue.[9]
Career
Miller moved to London to pursue a career in comedy.[10] He was introduced to fellow Cambridge graduate Alexander Armstrong in 1992, at the TBA Sketch Comedy Group, a comedy club which ran at the Gate Theatre Studio, Notting Hill throughout the 1990s. They performed their first full-length show together at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1994 and returned in 1996, when they were nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award.[11]
Their success resulted in the commission of the television series Armstrong and Miller, which ran for four series from 1997 to 2001 – one on the Paramount Comedy Channel and three on Channel 4. In 1998, the duo also had their own radio show with the same name on BBC Radio 4, which featured many of the sketches and characters from their TV series. After a six-year break, the show was recommissioned for Hat Trick Productions as The Armstrong and Miller Show and is in its third series.[12] In 2008, they also had a second radio show, Children's Hour with Armstrong and Miller.[13]
Miller also started acting in films, starring in Steve Coogan's first feature film, The Parole Officer (2001).[14] In 2003 he played the role of 'Bough', sidekick to Rowan Atkinson's title character, in the film Johnny English. In 2004 he co-starred in The Prince and Me.
In 2004 and 2005, he starred in two series of the BBC television series The Worst Week of My Life,[15] with Sarah Alexander.[16] In 2006 he took part in a three-part Christmas special, The Worst Christmas of My Life. He starred as James Lester in ITV's 2007 sci-fi drama Primeval[11] and as Mr Jonathan in the Australian film Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance.[8]
Miller provided the voice for the ITV Digital and now PG Tips Monkey in a popular series of television advertisements featuring Johnny Vegas.[17] In 2008, he appeared as television producer Jonathan Pope in Tony Jordan's series Moving Wallpaper on ITV1 and starred in Thank God You're Here. In 2010, he made his directorial debut with the film Huge.
In January 2011, he presented an episode of the BBC science series Horizon titled "What is One Degree?"
In 2011, he reprised his role as James Lester in the TV series Primeval. From November 2011, he played the role of Louis Harvey in The Ladykillers at the Gielgud Theatre.
On 23 July 2012, Miller began touring for his book, It's Not Rocket Science, from the Royal Society in London. He also appeared at the British Comedy Awards with Armstrong on Channel 4. In 2013, Miller took part in an episode of Room 101 and a Comic Relief special of game show Pointless. On 13 December 2014, he appeared in a Christmas edition of The Celebrity Chase.
From 2011 until the series three premiere in 2014, Miller starred in the BBC-French co-produced series Death in Paradise as Detective Inspector (DI) Richard Poole.[18] A third series of Death in Paradise was commissioned for early 2014.[19] On 9 April 2013 it was announced that Miller would be departing the series,[20] to be replaced by actor Kris Marshall. Filming began in March 2013, and Miller left in May after completion of the first episode, in which his character was murdered.
Miller explained he had personal reasons for the change. "It was the job of a lifetime, but logistically I just didn't feel I could continue." He went on to say that "My personal circumstances just made it too complicated, but I will miss it like a lung. I love it here."[21] Miller's wife had discovered she was pregnant after he had begun filming the first series. Their time apart caused strains on their relationship, and with his sons. He wanted to spend more time with his family.[21]
In 2014, Miller appeared in a feature film version of Molly Moon.[22] He also appeared with Billy Connolly and David Tennant in the film What We Did on Our Holiday.[23]
Starring opposite Nancy Carroll and Diana Vickers,[24] Miller played Robert Houston in the play The Duck House by Dan Patterson and Colin Swash.[25] The show is a political satire based on the UK parliamentary expenses scandal.[25]
On 6 September 2014, Miller guest starred in Doctor Who as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the third episode: "Robot of Sherwood".[26][27]
In 2015, following the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, Miller starred as King John in Series 6 of Horrible Histories.
Since October 2015, Miller along with Ruth Jones and Will Close, appears in adverts for British supermarket Tesco as Roger with Jones as his wife Jo and Close as their son Freddie. In 2016, Miller co-presented the ITV entertainment series It's Not Rocket Science alongside Rachel Riley and Romesh Ranganathan.
In February 2016 Miller issued a book, accompanied by a lecture tour, entitled The Aliens are Coming!, examining the question "are we alone in the universe?"[28]
Miller played the role of Murray in the six-part BBC sitcom I Want My Wife Back, starring alongside Caroline Catz. In 2016, he will appear in Channel 4 comedy Power Monkeys.
Production
Miller directed a television pilot that subsequently became the first episode of Steve Coogan's 2006 British BBC TV series Saxondale. He and Alexander Armstrong have formed a production company named Toff Media.
Awards
Miller was awarded a Judges' Commendation for his portrayal of Hamlet at the 1990 National Student Drama Festival. He co-wrote MindGym, winner of the first BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Award for comedy in 1998, with Tim Wright and Adam Gee. He and Armstrong won a BCA Award for The Armstrong and Miller Show. In 2010 they also won a BAFTA for The Armstrong and Miller Show.[29]
Personal life
Miller's first wife was Belinda Stewart-Wilson, who guest-starred with him in Series 3 of Primeval. The pair, who have a son Jackson, known as Sonny, born in 2006, divorced in 2011. Miller has another son, Harrison, born in late 2011 and a daughter born in June 2015, with his second wife production executive Jessica Parker, daughter of British musician Alan Parker, whom he married in September 2013.[30][31][32]
On 20 February 2009, Miller appeared with Rob Brydon in an episode of QI (Series 6. 9). Brydon has often been mistaken for Miller,[3][15] and as a joke they dressed in similar shirts for the episode and shared an on-screen narcissistic kiss.[7][33] A talented musician, Miller plays the guitar and drums.[16]
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1991 Murder Most Horrid P.C. Watkins TV series (1 episode: "He Died a Death")
1992 The Pall Bearer's Revue TV series (1 episode: "Episode 3")
1993 French and Saunders TV series (1 episode: "The Silence of the Lambs")
Paul Merton: The Series Various TV series (6 episodes)
1995 You Bet! Himself / various TV series (series 8, show 6)
Casualty Daniel Murdoch TV series (1 episode: "Trials and Tribulations")
Look at the State We're In! Marty TV mini-series
Sardines Simon TV film
1997 The Jack Docherty Show Various TV series
1997–2001 The Armstrong and Miller Show Various Roles TV series (27 episodes)
1999 Plunkett and Macleane Dixon
Hunting Venus Gavin TV film
Passion Killers Nick TV film
Coming Soon Ben TV film
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Daredevils of the Desert French Officer Video
2000 You Can't Dance Short
Tip of My Tongue Dave Short
Cinderella Dandini TV film
The Blind Date Joe Maxwell
There's Only One Jimmy Grimble Johnny Two Dogs
2001 The Parole Officer Colin
Birthday Girl Concierge
Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible Rebenor TV series (1 episode: "Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust")
2002 Surrealissimo: The Trial of Salvador Dalí Yoyotte TV film
The Book Group Martin Logan TV series (2 episodes)
Jeffrey Archer: The Truth Roland Moxley-Nemesis TV film
2003 Johnny English Angus Bough
The Actors Clive
2004 The Prince and Me Søren
Agatha Christie's Marple Basil Blake TV film
Doc Martin Stewart James TV series (2 episodes: "The Portwenn Effect" and "Out of the Woods")
2004–06 The Worst Week of My Life Howard Steel TV series (17 episodes)
2005 Malice Aforethought Dr. Edmund Bickleigh TV film
Starry Night Short
Doc Martin Stewart James TV series (1 episode: "Out of the Woods")
2006 Popetown The Priest TV series (10 episodes)
Saxondale Bernard Langley TV series (1 episode: "Episode No. 1.6")
2007 Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance Mr Jonathon
2007–11 Primeval James Lester TV series (30 episodes [credited for 36])
2007–10 The Armstrong and Miller Show Various Roles TV series (19 episodes)
2008–09 Moving Wallpaper Jonathan Pope TV series (18 episodes)
2008 Moving Wallpaper: The Mole Jonathan Pope TV series short (2 episodes: uncredited)
2009 Within the Whirlwind Krasny
The Catherine Tate Show Ghost of Christmas Past TV series (1 episode "Nan's Christmas Carol")
QI Himself Comedy Panel Show (1 episode "The Future")
2010 4.3.2.1. Mr. Philips
2011–14 Death in Paradise DI Richard Poole 17 episodes
2011 Episodes Himself TV series (1 episode)
Johnny English Reborn Angus Bough Scenes deleted[34]
Felix and Murdo Various One-off special on Channel 4 on 28 December with Alexander Armstrong
2013 Room 101 Himself TV series (1 episode)
2014 What We Did on Our Holiday Gavin McLeod Cinematic Film, with David Tennant
This is Jinsy Chief Acco / Berpetta TV series (1 episode)
Doctor Who Sheriff of Nottingham TV series (1 episode: "Robot of Sherwood")
2015 Horrible Science Professor McTaggart (voice)/various 10 episodes
Asylum Dan Hern TV series (3 episodes)
Ballot Monkeys Kevin Sturridge
2016 It's Not Rocket Science Co-presenter With Rachel Riley and Romesh Ranganathan
I Want My Wife Back Murray BBC One sitcom series
Power Monkeys TBC
2017 Tracey Ullman's Show Rupert Murdoch TV series
Ben Miller: 'Science has always been my comedy inspiration'
Miller loved science at school
Miller loved science at school Credit: Julian Andrews/Eye R8 Productions
Matthew Stadlen
11 March 2016 • 9:06am
Science, complained Ben Miller a couple of years ago, remains in a ghetto, despite the public’s keen appetite for it. The comedian and actor was referring to television scheduling: “Most TV execs are arts graduates,” he said. “They hated science at school...I loved science.”
He still does. And he still doesn’t want to see it “ghettoised”, or relegated to the sphere of subjects considered esoteric or arcane. Hence, presumably, his latest book, The Aliens Are Coming!, which is billed as a “comprehensive, accessible and hugely entertaining” guide to the search for alien life - accessible and entertaining being the operative words.
“Definitely the most important thing in my life is being a father”
His ongoing ITV show, It’s Not Rocket Science, is meanwhile no doubt another part of his quest to take science mainstream, emulating the likes of TV scientists like Brian Cox and David Attenborough. The six-part entertainment series, named after Miller’s first book, is an eye-catching celebration of science and the natural world executed through large-scale experiments and emotive personal stories. With its promise to cut out “the boring bits” of science, it is unabashedly designed to bring the subject to the masses.
If the authorship of popular science books and a presenting slot on a science TV show are surprising strings to find in a comedian’s bow, Miller insists there’s nothing incongruous about his two passions.
“Science has always been an inspiration for me in comedy because science is essentially about cutting through the bulls*** really, and so is comedy,” he says when we meet in a central London hotel. Arriving with a brow dampened by sweat, the 50-year-old cuts a slight figure with thinning hair and a quiet charisma. He removes an outer garment to reveal an elegant waistcoat and a vaguely dandyish look. In his own words, he is a “sort of social climbing, semi-neurotic, wannabe Rolling Stone”, although he laughs as he says this so it’s unclear how seriously he means to be taken.
Since abandoning a PhD in solid state physics at Cambridge three years in, in favour of a part in Arthur Smith’s play Trench Kiss, his interest in science has run parallel to his comedy writing and performing. His first book, published in 2012, covered ground he “knew really well” but the new one - whose subject matter ranges from the beginnings of life on earth to the most recent searches for alien intelligence - located him outside his comfort zone and he found himself learning as he went along.
After three years of study, Miller ditched his PhD
After three years of study, Miller ditched his PhD Credit: S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Miller’s unusual combination of interests can perhaps be explained by the experience of his formative years. Born in London to teacher parents, he and his family moved to Nantwich in Cheshire when he was a toddler. At eight years old he joined the drama club at a local state school and began writing and performing sketches. But his father convinced him to study science, and he graduated from Cambridge with a 2:1 in Natural Sciences before setting about his postgraduate studies. Only then did he have time to tread the boards again, and he performed in up to 30 plays, including with the actress Rachel Weisz, whom he also dated.
His more enduring bond, however, was with a different actor: Alexander Armstrong, to whom he was introduced in the early nineties by the playwright Jez Butterworth, a mutual friend. After an “absolutely euphoric” drunken evening on Armstrong’s barge a friendship - and highly successful partnership - was born.
The pair were nominated for a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1996 and a year later their first TV show was commissioned. They now run the production company Toff Media together and both produce and star in Horrible Science on CITV, as well as their eponymous sketch show.
With longtime friend and collaborator, Alexander Armstrong
With longtime friend and collaborator, Alexander Armstrong Credit: Philip Hollis
“It gives me a tremendous amount of additional confidence to know I’ve got a working partner,” says Miller. “We’ve got a fabulous friendship. [It’s] a great way not to go nuts as well - you’ve got someone else there who’s been through all the things that you have.”
"I’m with the Seinfeld thing: everyone’s life is a little bit s***"
Theirs, however, is a “very open marriage”: time apart, he believes, is important after the all-consuming process of collaboration. “We’ve developed this cycle of doing it for a few years, then having a break and doing our own things and then coming back,” he says.
His actual marriage, to film producer Jessica Parker, has resulted in two children - Harrison, four, and Lana, three - with whom he lives in a hamlet, surrounded by countryside, on the top of a Cotswolds hill. He also has a nine-year-old son, Sonny, from his first marriage to the actress Belinda Stewart-Wilson (who played nerdy Will’s attractive mother in The Inbetweeners).
Fatherhood arrived as a “great relief in many ways” for Miller. Children, he says, are good for putting things in perspective. “They just don’t care [about the highs and lows of my daily life]. They’re just like, ‘Where’s my eggy eggy?’ And that’s a great thing,” he says. “Definitely the most important thing in my life is being a father.”
He and Stewart-Wilson did everything they could to remain on good terms during their divorce, but that didn’t make it easy. “It’s horrendous. It’s awful,” he says of the ending of a marriage. “Our divorce went really, really well and we’re very good friends. I’m really proud of how we’ve done our best to take care of Sonny and make sure that it affects him as little as possible. But divorce is no fun. Especially the system that still persists here. Adversarial divorce is just horrible. It means that even if you get on and even if you’ve got a lot in common, the whole system sets you against one another. It’s all engineered to create upset and division. I think one of the really heartening things recently is the move from adversarial divorce to mediation. The faster and the most efficiently we can move to that system rather than adversarial divorce the better."
Miller meets Gordon Brown at Science and Innovation Day
Miller meets Gordon Brown at Science and Innovation Day Credit: Julian Simmonds
It’s not just divorce but life in general, he suggests, that can be tough going. “Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not so good. I’m always a bit wary when people say in interviews, ‘I’m at the happiest place of my life that I’ve ever been’. I think, ‘Really? Are you?’ Life is a mix, isn’t it? I’m more with the Seinfeld thing: everyone’s life is a little bit s***, isn’t it?”
Not that he isn’t enormously grateful for his “amazing” life. It’s just that “being in a permanent state of electrified happiness I think is slightly odd, and that’s certainly not in my nature,” he says. “I get dissatisfied really easily and I have to constantly keep moving, I have to constantly keep doing things. I find it very hard to switch off.”
When his father died four years ago, Miller signed up for therapy. “I had a terrible time. I had terrible anxiety and I was having panic attacks. I went to a cognitive psychotherapist really regularly. Sooner or later it had eased to the point where I could manage to cope on my own. But it took a long time.”
Miller signed up for therapy after the death of his father
Miller signed up for therapy after the death of his father Credit: Julian Andrews/Eye R8 Productions
As for his professional future, he maintains he’s “never had a plan,” but having scratched the itch of late, he might forget about science for a while. And this includes aliens - the detection of which, by the way, he concludes is unlikely though not impossible. While he expects evidence of single-celled life to be found within the next 10 years, other technologically advanced civilisations “are going to be tens or hundreds of light years away, so any evidence of their existence is going to have to have been sent at just the right time in the past for us to intercept it in the present,” he argues.
Either way, it’s comedy he’s likely to focus on now, rather than extraterrestrial life forms. “More than anything,” he says. “I enjoy making people laugh”.
The Aliens are Coming! by Ben Miller is published by Little, Brown (£12.99). To order your copy for £10.99 plus p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk. It’s Not Rocket Science is on ITV on Tuesdays at 8pm
The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe
David Pitt
113.2 (Sept. 15, 2016): p7.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe. By Ben Miller. Oct. 2016.304p. Experiment, paper, $15.95 (9781615193653). 559.
This rousing history of the search for extraterrestrial life takes us from the origins of the twentieth-century fixation on UFOs right up to present-day scientific research. It's a very entertaining book (its author is a noted British comedian), but it's also rigorously researched and intelligently presented. The story of humanity's search for extraterrestrial life is a deeply fascinating one, jump-starting in the late 1940s, when a pilot reported seeing objects in the sky, and when a UFO was alleged to have crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico. After decades of unverifiable reports of UFO visitations, real scientists started doing real investigation. Early space exploration was depressing--Venus and Mercury proved to be barren--but exploration of Earth itself became breathtakingly encouraging. Miller reports, for example, that we now know that life exists on our planet in the most inhospitable environments--environments that could easily exist elsewhere. Researchers across multiple scientific disciplines, we learn, are developing new ways to look for extraterrestrial life, and a new consensus is slowly becoming clear: life on other worlds exists. That is a tremendously exciting possibility, and reading about it has its own kind of excitement, too.--David Pitt
Pitt, David
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pitt, David. "The Aliens Are Coming! The Extraordinary Science behind Our Search for Life in the Universe." Booklist, 15 Sept. 2016, p. 7. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464980741&it=r&asid=d445f7fbe096adb30d03be292cbd91dd. Accessed 5 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A464980741
Monkey Miller crosses PG Tips
237.8138 (Jan. 18, 2014): p81.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 William Reed Business Media Limited
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/
Ben Miller - the former Death in Paradise star - made rather a faux pas when talking to the Radio Times last week.
Discussing filming overseas, Ben described himself as "a stereotypical Brit abroad". "Every time I go away my suitcase is packed with Typhoo tea and English mustard," he admitted.
Nothing wrong with that - except Miller plays Johnny Vegas's monkey pal in those PG Tips ads, doesn't he? Oops.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Next he'll be telling us he and Alexander Armstrong don't drink Spitfire ale, either.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Monkey Miller crosses PG Tips." Grocer, 18 Jan. 2014, p. 81. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA361242858&it=r&asid=fed0da5f2d125b8345b84be25424787f. Accessed 5 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A361242858
Miller's tale: Lloyd Evans talks to Ben Miller about politics, physics and his part in The Duck House
Lloyd Evans
323.9666 (Nov. 30, 2013): p59.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Ben Miller is wolfing down a pizza. I meet the comedian in a Cambridge restaurant where he demolishes a Margherita shortly before racing off to appear on stage in The Duck House , a new farce about corrupt MPs. The show is set in 2009. Miller stars as a Labour backbencher who wants to jump ship and join the Conservatives. But first he has to convince a Tory bigwig that his expenses claims are entirely legitimate. He's not helped by his dim-witted wife, his corrupt Russian cleaner, and his anarchist son, Seb, who has sublet the family flat in Kensington to a suicidal Goth.
The writers Dan Patterson and Colin Swash wanted to stage the play just before the 2010 election. Miller believes this would have been premature. 'People were incandescent with rage about the expenses claims but now it looks like the economy's turning a corner and the scandal feels funny for the first time.'
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The show has been touring since October. Do the audiences vary?
'Noticeably, but it's the opposite of what you might think. In Malvern, which is very Tory, they loved the Tory jokes, but with the champagne socialist jokes, it was, "Fine but we're not really interested." We're hoping the champagne socialist jokes will really take off in London because that's where the majority of champagne socialists are.'
The script is still receiving last-minute tweaks.
'We, the actors, like the play as it is, thanks very much. We don't want to change it. And the writers want to keep changing it as much as they possibly can.' What Miller calls 'the horse-trading' continues under the supervision of the director, Terry Johnson.
'He's quite strict, quite martial. If he were a schoolteacher he'd be the kind who gets everyone in line immediately, then further down the track you discover he has a heart of gold and he runs all the school trips.'
Is he collaborative?
'Very. And then he decides what he's going to do.'
Sounds like a dictator.
'A benign dictator.'
Miller is a seasoned writer himself. Has he been tempted to throw in the odd gag? 'No. I find when I'm acting that makes me very unpopular. I just pop my other hat back in its box. It's more fun that way. You're absolved of any responsibility. Literally, I have people ironing my socks and laying them out for me. I'm being treated as if I were an imbecile. And I respond to that.'
Miller studied physics at Cambridge. His comedy partner, Alexander Armstrong, was a contemporary but they met only once and fleetingly. 'I'd heard that he was very funny. He was in a show called A Water Melon Killed My Daughter . But we didn't meet properly till after.'
Miller began to study for a PhD in solid state physics but he changed tack and came to London in 1990. He scraped a living as an actor, sketch writer and stand-up. 'What was your persona on stage?'
'Everyone was doing alternative comedy.
I thought I'd distinguish myself by just telling jokes, with differing degrees of success. I wasn't one of those people who stayed on if it wasn't going well. I'd leave immediately. I'd either be on for the full slot or a few seconds. "Thanks very much. Bye. G'night."'
'Were your parents overjoyed that you'd chucked in your PhD to become a strolling player?'
'Unsurprisingly not. When Xander and I got our show on TV, my dad came up to London and we went out to dinner and he said, "Sorry I tried to talk you out of it. I was giving you the best advice I could at the time."'
Comics earn a lot of dosh playing huge arenas these days. Would he make a comeback?
'Yeah. Trouble is I don't know when I would do it. It's suited to the young single man. You need a lot of time on your hands in the evening. I mentioned it to my wife the other day. She said, "Absolutely not."'
He has two young children to look after and he admits that his outlook, and his political views, have changed over time.
'The depth of my understanding has changed,' he says. 'Initially you might think you agree with something and as you learn more about it you change your mind. Fundamentally we're all socialists, we operate a socialist system here. Whatever government is elected, we have a public health system and a public education system. Our differences of opinion are pretty narrow.'
Politics is one of his abiding interests. 'I'm one of those people that read a newspaper. So many people don't now. Extraordinary.' He predicts a Tory majority in 2015. 'Governments are hostage to the economic cycle and the present government is lucky in that it looks like we're going to get the new economic cycle in time for the election.'
The Coalition has worked well enough, he says, but he's no fan of hung parliaments. 'A clearly defined agenda and a mandate. That's what the British people want. I like to know what the government stands for, what the ideology is. Maybe it's force of habit but I'm a sucker for a theory. That's why I went into physics. I'd rather sink with a bad theory than swim with muddy pragmatism.'
'A lot of people have doubts about Ed Miliband. Do you?'
'I wouldn't say, even if I did. What I'm interested in is policies. My function as an actor is to keep as much of my personality, and my opinions, to myself. That way I can serve other people's writing. If you knew what my politics were, I couldn't do a play like this. It wouldn't work. That's a really important thing. It's self-interest. You want to be able to play as many different characters as you can.'
Working on stage is what excites him right now. 'The first ever job I had was in a play, Trench Kiss , with Caroline Quentin and Arthur Smith. We went to Edinburgh, did a tour, played Battersea Arts Centre. I thought, great, this is it. Time to get the smoking jacket. That's why I quit my PhD, because I got that job.'
'If you'd turned it down you could have won the Nobel Prize like all the other Cambridge physicists.'
'Yeah,' he shrugs. 'Or they could have done sketch-comedy.'
The Duck House is at the Vaudeville Theatre from 10 December until 29 March 2014 .
Evans, Lloyd
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Evans, Lloyd. "Miller's tale: Lloyd Evans talks to Ben Miller about politics, physics and his part in The Duck House." Spectator, 30 Nov. 2013, p. 59. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA357969174&it=r&asid=e4a8fdc41995eb29be37e103c2dfe8f9. Accessed 5 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A357969174
IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE
(Jan. 12, 2014): News: p20.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2014 Independent Print Ltd.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Ben Miller was studying for a PhD in physics at Cambridge until he was lured into a career in comedy. This book is an homage to his first love, written in as deliberately accessible and unscholarly a manner as possible, aimed at the reader who knows bugger-all about science and is missing out on the excitement. Miller explains how we know that we're falling towards a black hole, explores the physics of cake-baking, and speculates that though we are probably the only intelligent species in the Milky Way as yet, we are the ancestors of future Klingons. The style is at times a bit over-jocular, but it's a readable and engaging bid to throw a bridge between the two cultures.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE." Independent [London, England], 12 Jan. 2014, p. 20. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA355318322&it=r&asid=f64cfb69d684b4a995d9795846772daf. Accessed 5 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A355318322
You are here: Home » MEDIA » It’s Not Rocket Science by Ben Miller.
It’s Not Rocket Science by Ben Miller.
August 27, 2012 | By UncleGeoff | 1 Reply
Contrary to the title, ‘It’s Not Rocket Science’, Ben Miller’s book covers a lot of rocket science, especially in the final chapter. Then again, all the sciences are involved in rocket science. In many respects, this book is using Miller’s way of talking and metaphor to explain the basics of science in a more down-to-earth manner than the other science books I’ve reviewed here.
As he explains in his intro, Miller was all prepared to become a scientist but in his last year at university but got side-tracked into writing comedy sketches and went into that media instead and more recently, playing the head honcho on the ITV SF series ‘Primeval’ amongst other credits. I suspect the offer of a book deal came up and this supplied the way to write about his first love, science. Even better, he looks at current developments like the CERN Large Hadron Collider as well as explaining what they are looking for in easy to understand language, dropping in odd facts along the way. For instance, the Boson part of the Higgs Boson is named after the Indian physicist Satyendra Bose who first described them and hands up who thought it was named a nautical term.
There are some things that I wish Miller would have explained in more detail, like why quarks are described in terms of up, down, strange, charm, truth and beauty. Some make sense but I reckon the others will baffle people. If you’re going to pique the reader’s curiosity then things like that deserve an explanation. Then again, it is all too easy to become complacent and forget some readers aren’t going to understand that a ball takes up the least space.
When Miller moves on to evolution, it’s a shame that he leaves the difference between evolution and Lamarckism (that’s an animal like a giraffe getting a long neck by stretching for food in high trees) to a footnote. Which is a shame cos he does explain it well.
I was surprised when describing the carbon cycle that he didn’t have a rabbit eat the dandelion and the fox eating the rabbit rather than having to go off on a tangent to explain foxes don’t actually eat dandelions. Maybe I was too straight-faced.
If you have problems understanding genetics then Miller gives a decent lowdown on the subject. As with all these science subjects, I’m pretty conversant with them and whereas other authors go into Mendel’s theory, Miller chooses to explain it in terms of human genetics which must mean more to you than growing peas.
One of my first lessons at secondary school was my science teacher reminding our class that cooking a cake was conducting a transformation of raw substances into something else as basic chemistry. Granted he was describing a fruit cake but Miller does the same thing with a sponge. As a diabetic, this one is definitely out of my province but he details how to make a decent sponge by giving the mixture a good stir if you’re inclined to make one.
Something that I wasn’t sure where Miller stood was on global warming. Yes, I grasped the effects of sunspots and radiation and periodic ice ages, but he doesn’t dwell much on the fact that it is the damage to the ozone layer that is a manmade phenomenon.
Probably the biggest bee in Miller’s bonnet – which I’m sure he looks very pretty in – is being at dinner parties and pooh-poohing people who think Man has never been to the Moon and that it was all faked.
Contrary to some of my criticisms, there is a lot of interesting material about science subjects here. Whether Miller’s own fans or just general readers will pick up the book remains to be seen. Miller himself says the book was never intended to be comprehensive but to cover the subjects that he has the most interest in. No doubt this will leave room for a sequel. In the meantime, if you’re still shy of understanding science in layman’s terms, then maybe this will help you put it in context to reality.
GF Willmetts
August 2012
Paradox and It's Not Rocket Science: Putting it in laymen's terms
John Henzell
September 29, 2012
Related
John Browne is of more than elementary interest
John Browne is of more than elementary interest
Lebanese Rocket Society reaches for the stars
Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Science
Jim Al Khalili
Bantam Press
It’s Not Rocket Science
Ben Miller
Sphere
Why is the night sky dark? Two new books – one by Jim Al Khalili, the other by Ben Miller – pose this seemingly straightforward question, which inevitably has a counterintuitive answer that includes proof of the veracity of the Big Bang theory.
That duplication should not be a surprise, because both Al Khalili and Miller are pursuing the same goal: to demystify the big topics of popular science, albeit approaching that aim from very different directions.
Al Khalili is a professor in theoretical physics at the University of Surrey in Britain and is also a prolific broadcaster and writer on popular science.
His writing style is exactly as one would imagine of him enlightening a lecture room full of bright undergrads on issues that have challenged everyone, from the Greek philosopher Zeno to those at the cutting edge of quantum physics.
His nine paradoxes range from a relatively trivial examination of hypothetical demons introducing entropy, to more weighty stuff that illustrates Einstein's theory of relativity and its predictions for how dimensions change when bodies are close to the speed of light.
Ben Miller's approach also reflects his own back story. He's a comedian (one half of the British comedy duo Armstrong and Miller) but was also once pursuing a doctorate in quantum physics at Cambridge's famous Cavendish laboratory, specialising in low-temperature quasi-zero dimensional mesoscopic electron systems.
Both facets of this history shine through in It's Not Rocket Science in the sense that it's not just clear that he actually understands this area of science, but also that his writing reads like a perpetual series of build-ups towards a punchline.
This latter trait grates somewhat, but fortunately mostly tails off midway through the book, which generally seems pitched at bright 15-year-olds rather than Al Khalili's undergrads, and still tackles meaty topics such as the Higgs boson particle, DNA, black holes, genetics and dark matter.
However, both authors also share the key attributes required in this genre: clarity of thought and the ability to write about complex subjects in an accessible way.
They share more than that, both also possessing that sense of wonder that gave rise to all these big questions being posed and eventually solved by humanity's greatest minds.
Reading these books will not only enlighten readers on the subjects traversed within, but also instil in them some of that sense of wonder and rigorous enquiry.
The Aliens are Coming! by Ben Miller – review
‘In this case, judging the book by its cover and title gives exactly the right impression of what is to come’
Shares
9
SophieScribe
Friday 1 July 2016 10.00 EDT
Last modified on Monday 6 February 2017 09.17 EST
Everyone has stared up at the stars on a dark night and wondered one of the most universal questions in science – are we alone? Somewhere in the universe (or in other universes) are there more planets like Earth, able to support life either as we know it, or even as we don’t? Are UFOs really signs of alien life? These and other questions are the focus of comedian and physicist Ben Miller’s new book, The Aliens are Coming! Unsurprisingly, the subject matter is wide-ranging, aiming to explore the origins of life, our current understanding of the universe, and pretty much everything to do with our search for extraterrestrial life.
You might expect such a book to be boring and inaccessible – and there are a few scary-looking equations – but Miller’s comedic background means that he can explain difficult concepts in a way that allows even the sleepiest reader to understand. Even though it is primarily a book about science, it’s also pretty funny in places, particularly in the descriptions of different scientists, meaning that I was certainly never bored. Who else would compare the idea of the number of planets emitting signals to viewing a crowd at a rock concert, all with lighters in their hands? If you’re a serious scientist, you might find it a little lighthearted, but to me Miller struck exactly the right balance between humour and so-called ‘hard science’. In this case, judging the book by its cover and title gives exactly the right impression of what is to come. You will learn a lot and have fun at the same time.
The Aliens Are Coming!: The Exciting and Extraordinary Science Behind Our Search for Life in the Universe. By Ben Miller
I particularly enjoyed the explanation of Zipf’s law, as applied to language. It is a compromise between the incessant repetition of the same sounds, and the existence of so many similar sounds that it is impossible to distinguish between them. The application of this to the speech of dolphins was also interesting. Dolphins are clearly very intelligent animals, capable of using their own language, and even understanding signed instructions given by humans, as well as having self-awareness and an ability to learn. The work described in this book is an intriguing insight into how we might eventually communicate with intelligent life from other planets.
If you are interested to learn about the actual science and research behind your favourite sci-fi, then this is the book for you. Miller applies scientific concepts, like the Fermi paradox, research into quasars, and the Laws of Thermodynamics to a field that has traditionally been considered as being based purely on speculation. An excellent and informative book for all mutant apes, both teens and adults.
The Aliens Are Coming! by Ben Miller (book review).
February 21, 2016 | By UncleGeoff | Reply
Having read Ben Miller’s book ‘It’s Not Rocket Science’ last year, I was curious enough to read his latest ‘The Aliens Are Coming!’, where he looks at our search for extra-terrestrial life-forms. More so, as he’s the second comedian – all right, in his case, actor-comedian – to recently promote science on British TV, relying on his own education to prove that he could also have been a scientist.
TheAliensAreComing
In his introduction, Miller points out that there are some exotic life forms in the most extreme places on Earth, making all things possible already. His reflection that in the past decade the search for alien life has changed from being something few astronomers would admit to, to becoming fervent after the discovery of so many planets, which must surely increase the odds of finding ET-life, or so it would seem. He does raise Science Fiction from time-to-time although not with any expertise when it comes to visuals, only citing ‘Star Trek’ as an example, and, from my perspective, it does lay a foundation that people are less inclined to be dismissive of alien life anymore, which would probably deserve a book itself.
Although Miller includes an edge of humour, he does actually present a lot of information and raise questions that deserve some thought as well. Take Voyager 1, now the furthest piece of Earth technology from us leaving the Solar system. Miller points out that all it would need is a sentient alien that is either too small or too big to handle the disk on-board and the trip is wasted. Looks like Goldilocks also belongs to alien size. Saying that, if we are led to believe that robots will replace organics on other worlds, size would be immaterial. They might just regard us as primitive for not even reaching solid state yet or perceptive enough to know we hadn’t got that far when we sent our postcard.
Even Miller says it would be remiss not to examine the UFO phenomenon, albeit briefly and he only uses three examples that everyone uses, but nothing you haven’t read before. Equally, the same is also true for the Drake Equation, although he does bring that down to a couple of letters. As to scanning the skies for radio signals from other worlds, something I will comment on is we have been broadcasting for only a couple centuries. If there are sentients on other worlds who are younger than ourselves, then even if they had reached our level of development now, it would still be many centuries before we’d receive any of their radio signals here and might think they haven’t developed as much. Oddly, I’ve never seen the word associations for SETI that Miller has, either.
It’s hard to avoid proper science in a book such as this, but at least Miller goes some way to explaining the fundamentals of the conditions for life. More importantly, a strong reminder of how many planets in our local stellar neighbourhood who are within the Goldilocks area of their stars that could result in life. The only drawback is if they are like us and switch from radio waves for TV transmission to cable, how short a time signals will be sent out into space. Me in my speculative thinking would also have to wonder if there is a discovery of other means of interstellar communication and we just haven’t found our own ansible yet.
One thing this work does show is Miller completed this book in November and his comments on the theory of gravitational waves now being proven shows how quickly things are moving in science.
Another is in how we recognise life looking out for change, growth and reproduction. Mind you, thinking back to my chemistry days and growing crystals in solution, one should apply other criteria as well.
I do think Miller gets carried away with giving a history of life on Earth. Even if it’s used to show how much luck it took for it to happen here. Statistically, if life is possible, then it’s going to happen and Earth won the draw. It doesn’t mean that there can’t be more winners out there. That’s how statistics happen and blind chance will chunder forward again and again until something sticks. Miller points out how long it took Earth to evolve life-forms that we sprung from over billions of years; just because we haven’t found fossilised evidence, doesn’t mean there weren’t other attempts and failures. Strangely, the odds he gives for it to happen, 1 in 20,000, is far less than winning the lottery and that’s not even taking into account the available chemicals to make it happen would reduce the odds even more. As I’ve commented in the past, evolution doesn’t need an intelligent species and if humans were gone tomorrow, life on Earth would still carry on and most signs of our civilisation would be gone in a couple of centuries.
With the new SETI project set up, if you want to give your spare computer time over for analysis, look up ‘Breakthrough Listen’, www.breakthroughinitiatives.org and seti@home app, as it’s going to take a lot of computer power to analyse the information that their new radio telescopes will be picking up.
Miller uses the problem of deciphering the Rosetta Stone to indicate how hard it would be to interpret a written alien language. Putting my thinking hat on, we are making the assumption that alien life would have the same limitations as ourselves in how much information we can transmit. If they haven’t, then surely a short talking film with sub-titles, so we can associate it with basic science would be the best thing to send so we would get the basics quickly. Better still, they would only have to say things once, knowing that it could be watched time and again. The only thing we would have to work out is the algorithm they would have to use to compress the signal. Such a species would have to have an educational bent and might see our broadcasts akin to a pirate broadcast.
Although I suspect some of you are likely to skimp over the more scientific knowledge in this book, spend your time over it and you’ll have a better appreciation of the problems.
Interestingly, I’ve come up with several good ideas for articles and stories from the book which is always good for stimulating the brain. Any book that can do that is always good for a read.
GF Willmetts
February 2016
(pub: Sphere/Little, Brown Book Group. 287 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84744-502-5)
The Aliens Are Coming by Ben Miller
The Aliens Are Coming, Ben Miller
The long lost Farscape is still my favorite science fiction series. It’s not just the humor, but the existence of a wider variety of alien life. There are lots of aliens who are not hominids. There’s Maia, the leviathan, there’s that fabulous praying mantis like diagnosan doctor, there’s the Hinerians who are amphibians, and the crustacean Pilot. Sure, most species were hominids, because after all it was relatively low-budget, but they at least made an effort to break form.
If only science fiction writers read The Aliens Are Coming by Ben Miller. I thought I was clever and discerning by objecting to all the bipeds and hominids, but he points out all the other variations in possible alien beings that might make even perception difficult, let alone communication. What if they are not carbon-based? What if they are incorporeal, a gaseous creature? What is they operate in a faster time frame than we do, making them imperceptible to us and vice versa? Our ability to search for and identify intelligent life can be limited by our assumptions, so we should look for intelligent life without uncertainty about how it will present itself.
Before I begin this review I must confess my bias. I volunteered my computer’s idle time to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) since I first learned I could back in 1999 or 2000. I would leave my computer on, with SETI running and proudly pasted by certificates on the wall at work, even if some of my colleagues rolled their eyes. I am fairly certain that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. I am also pretty certain that we have not met any yet.
The Aliens Are Coming is an insouciant, enjoyable and downright funny science book. Ben Miller is not just a science geek, he’s also an actor, a comedian and is thus able to make physics and cosmology amusing. This is a fabulous book for someone who wants an introduction to the science of the search for life and to the ideas that are driving that search, the physics that are the foundation on which many of those ideas lie.
You can’t help but enjoy this book. It cracks me up at times, for example, when talking about dark matter, he wrote, “Whatever dark matter is, it’s definitely the boss of you.” Yup.
Much of The Aliens Are Coming may be surprising in its focus on life on Earth, but it’s what we know about life here that informs our ideas of life out there. For example, we used to think there were far more narrow limits for the kinds of environments in which we can find life. Now, having found life at the deep bottom of the sea and in the deadly heat of Yellowstone, we know there are forms of weird life, of extremophiles, that can take the heat or the lack of light.
Because of what we know about evolution on Earth, we can make some assumptions about evolution elsewhere. Because we know about gravity, chemistry, biology, language and so on, we can make solid guesses about what kind of planets we need to look for to find life.
This is solid science in The Aliens Are Coming, even some math, but it’s explained clearly and logically so that it is not difficult to follow. If you’re a physics/astronomy enthusiast, some of the time spent in explanation may set your mind wandering, but this is a foundation-building book–one that lays the groundwork for a solid and science-based understanding of the search for life in the universe – and a powerful antidote to the UFO/Roswell/alien abduction kind of mythology.
4pawsI liked The Aliens Are Coming a lot. It’s smart, witty and fun. It does not oversimplify or talk down to readers. It does start with the assumption that readers are new to much of the science and walks through the assumptions researchers are making so readers understand that SETI, for example, is not some weirdos waiting for E.T. but serious science searching for signals that may reveal there is someone somewhere out there. And like us, they may be listening.
The Aliens Are Coming will be published October 4th, 2016. I received an e-galley from the publisher via NetGalley.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Aliens Are Coming! | Ben Miller
*Book provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
In this book, Ben Miller looks at the search for extra-terrestrial life through a scientific lens. By breaking down the Drake Equation and examining all the requirements of it from a physical, biological, geological, mathematical and even linguistic perspective, Miller gives us a realistic picture of the likelihood of communicating with aliens. At the same time, he uses terrestrial examples to show areas we still need more information on.
Review:
If you enjoy science, this is actually a good book for you. There is little conspiracy theory and hypothetical talk and a significant amount of science. Admittedly, I struggled through the biology of evolution section (used to give a time template for how long it may take life on other planets to become complex) but the rest of the book was an engaging, intelligent read. Miller's humor also helped to balance out some of the drier parts.
I greatly appreciated that this search for extra-terrestrials reminded the reader that there are plenty of things we can learn from our own world to aid our search. The convergent evolution that leads to platypi. The translation of dolphin language. The ripple effects in our understanding of the world from each discovery we make about it.
There were so many parts of this book that led me to eagerly do some quick Google searches to get a better understanding. This is something that I think all good science books should do. They should light a fire of curiosity in the reader, a need for more information. I happily give 4 hoots!