Live of a Universe is a two-part documentary series by physicist Brian Cox. Cox filmed this special whilst on tour in Australia speaking to audiences and scientists about two fundamental questions how did the universe begin and how will it end? In the last decade, we have been able to probe these ideas in unprecedented detail, this is the story of our scientific quest to understand the origin of the universe.

Episode One: Creation
Of all the questions in science, the question of the origin of the universe is one that Cox feels needs no motivation as every human culture has its own creation story and science is no different. For the best part of one hundred years, we’ve had the theory that the universe began with the Big Bang but only in the last decade or so new precision measurements of the cosmos coupled with theoretical developments have given us an unprecedented detailed picture of the origin of the universe. In the first episode of this series, we see Brian Cox probe some of the deepest questions known to humanity. Why is it that we exist? How did our Universe come into existence? Was there a time before the Big Bang?

Episode Two: End of Days
On our journey so far we have explored how the universe began but what about our future? We all get used to the idea that we live finite lives and perhaps the fact we come to accept that is because our legacy is our children and grandchildren, but will our legacy as humans be eternal or do the laws of nature conspire against us in order to make that impossible, will all trace of our civilization one day vanish? What will be our faith and what is the ultimate faith of the universe? In this episode we see Cox investigate the theories that cosmologists have put forwards for the end of days.

Directed by: Paul Olding