Hot on the heels of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. The BBC repeated their 1980 television series starring Sam Waterston.
Robert Oppenheimer is a hot shot lecturer adored by his students, most of them are the best of the best.
The cheeky Oppenheimer sometimes gives his students a maths equation to solve which even he did not have an answer to.
However this is the 1930s. There are fears of Nazi expansionism. The only country capable of stopping them in Europe is communist Russia.
In the USA, they are not out of the depression with millions still unemployed. Socialism might be the only answer.
Oppenheimer has resisted socialism although sympathetic to it. His friends, family members and even some of his students regularly attend meetings
The first episode was very much an introduction. The genesis of the a nuclear explosion has been formulated. Oppenheimer also considers whether he might become a military scientist for the government if there is was with Germany.
Good acting by Waterston who would go on to have a fruitful few years. Having being made in 1980, the drama is a little starchy here and there.
