Must-watch music/science/life documentary

Photograph: BBC

Finally found the time to sit down and watch Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, which I downloaded via BBC iPlayer a couple of weeks back, and I just can't recommend it enough. The documentary follows Mark Oliver Everett, the creative force behind criminally underrated indie rock band, Eels, on a journey across America to discover more about the father he never really knew - taciturn quantum physicist and author of the Many-Worlds Interpretation, Hugh Everett III. The film works on a multitude of different planes (appropriately enough): as a primer on quantum mechanics; as a thumbnail sketch of post-war America; as a portrait of a distant father-son relationship; and as an insight into the minds of two geniuses, one musical, one scientific.

Unfortunately the programme is no longer available to download although thanks to the BBC Programmes BETA I can link to a permanent episode page which will automatically provide an embedded on-demand stream of the programme for a week after transmission should it be shown again (would be nice to add a broadcast alert feature to these pages come to think of it - will mention it to the brains in Audio & Music Interactive).

Until such a time, you'll have to make do with a couple of tasters from the BBC's YouTube channel: