The BBC asked me (Neil Smith – Technical Historian!) to appear on another episode of The Secret Genius of Modern Life with Professor Hannah Fry.

They wanted me to show my work-in-progress replica of Leon Theremin’s ground-breaking closed-circuit television systems from 1925/6/7.

The program is due to be broadcast on April 23 2025. It was still in a fairly early stage of development when we recorded the episode last October. I’m aiming to have it all finished by the centenary in late 2026.

The program is available in BBC iPlayer now at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0029ktf/the-secret-genius-of-modern-life-series-3-4-doorbell

Here are some images of the replica. The main mirror drum is about 11 inches/280 mm diameter. I machined all of the parts in my home machine shop.