Hawking review

Stephen Hawking has led a remarkable life by any standard – for one thing, not many people have appeared in both Cambridge lecture halls and The Simpsons .

His triumphs make a fascinating story, but not necessarily a cinematic one – and especially if, as in this doc, the personal is prioritised over the science.

There’s an admirable refusal to canonise the prof, and we’re left in no doubt that his life has not been plain sailing either for him or those he relies on, but it’s not clear what Hawking gains from being seen in a cinema rather than on, say, BBC4.