There's a God-shaped hole in the BBC's science documentaries

Two new films from the BBC and Humanists UK, featuring Chris Packham and Dr Alice Roberts, seek to explain the origin of our planet from a scientific, secular point of view. But in ignoring the divine, they raise more spiritual questions than they answer, says George Pitcher

I’ve watched two media events in the past few days that have raised profound questions on the meaning of life, neither of which have involved the commissioning of explicit sexual images from exploited others.

The first, a short animated video voiced by celebrity scientist Professor Alice Roberts, is from the campaign group Humanists UK. Called Where Do We Come From?, it is aimed at primary school children as part of the Understanding Humanism platform.

The other is the opening episode of a four-part docuseries from BBC2 called Earth, fronted by celebrity naturalist Chris Packham, which examines how our planet was formed over hundreds of millions of years of its pre-history.