On the 18th of October BBC Four is going to broadcast a programme called Tails You Win: The Science of Chance, presented by Prof David Spiegelhalter, as part of its Big Science series.

Here’s the BBC’s description:

Smart and witty, jam-packed with augmented-reality graphics and fascinating history, this film, presented by Professor David Spiegelhalter, tries to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world. For once this really is ‘risky’ television ((I’m going to guess this sentence is what clinched the commission – CP)).

The film follows in the footsteps of The Joy of Stats, which won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Science/Natural History programme of 2011. Now the same blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery is applied to the joys of chance and the mysteries of probability, the vital branch of mathematics that gives us a handle on what might happen in the future. Professor Spiegelhalter is ideally suited to that task, being Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University, as well as being a recent Winter Wipeout contestant on BBC TV.

Update 09/10/2012: The BBC have uploaded a trailer for the program:

[youtube url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vApS8EkopTI]

Also have a look at Understanding Uncertainty, the site run by David’s unit at Cambridge to promote the public understanding of risk, and send in any coincidences you’ve experienced to the Cambridge Coincidences Collection.

More information

Tails You Win – The Science of Chance on BBC Four

via RSSeNews