Space Stories: Sir Patrick Moore
- 1st Feb 2023
- Author: Alex Thompson
Young enthusiasm
From the age of six, Moore was fascinated by the night sky. Joining the British Astronomical Society aged eleven, he began to run a small observatory in East Grinstead after Moore’s mentor William Sadler Franks – the head of the observatory – was killed in a road accident.
Not that it was an easy childhood for Moore. He was home educated by private tutors due to poor health including heart problems, removal of his teeth and a weak right eye. It was the latter diagnosis which made Moore decide to wear his now iconic monocle.
He refused to use his health as an excuse, however. After serving in the home guard in World War II, Moore rejected the opportunity to study at the University of Cambridge, citing he wished “to stand on my own two feet.”
He wrote his first book, Guide to the Moon, in 1952, going on to write by his calculations over one hundred books in his life. However, it was not long after his maiden publication that he got his break in the medium that would go on to define him.
Big dreams on the small screen
Moore’s first venture into television was debating against the existence of UFO’s, following a spate of flying saucer ‘sightings’. Following this he was invited to host a live astronomy show on the BBC, originally called ‘Star Map’ before being renamed in the Radio Times as ‘The Sky at Night’.
The maiden broadcast took place on 24 April 1957, with Moore explaining a wide variety of astronomical concepts and space news to audiences ranging from professional astronomers to casual channel hoppers. He would go on to host over 700 episodes of the show up until a posthumous edition broadcast on 7 January 2013, four weeks after Moore had passed.
He only missed one episode in this time, in 2004 due to a near-fatal case of food poisoning from a goose egg. For this run, Moore is recognised as the host of the world’s longest-running television series with the same original presenter.
During his time presenting, Moore was presented with several incredible opportunities, including believing himself to be the only person to meet Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong, and being the first westerner allowed by Russia to see photographic results from the Luna 3 probe. He also hosted and commentated on the Apollo missions, and presented the BBC’s coverage of 1999’s total lunar eclipse over the UK.
Deteriorating health meant in later years, recording of The Sky at Night moved to Moore’s home in Selsey, where both the 50th anniversary edition and then the 700th episode of the show broadcast from.
Entertaining Mr. Moore
Moore’s instantly recognisable face and large personality meant TV offers weren’t exclusive to his astronomical know-how.
For six years in the mid-1990’s Moore portrayed the title role in the Channel 4 series ‘GamesMaster.’ A character that knew everything about video games, host Dominik Diamond said Moore would record everything in a single take, despite not having the faintest idea of what he was actually talking about.
He would also appear in self-parodying roles on shows such as ‘The Goonies’ and the ‘Morecambe and Wise Show’, and appeared as an expert in Matt Smith’s debut episode of ‘Doctor Who’ in 2010.
Moore was also a keen musician, accompanying famed percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie on the xylophone during her episode of ‘This Is Your Life’, and playing the piano alongside Albert Einstein on the Violin for a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Swan’ (disappointingly no video evidence exists of the latter).
Honoured and remembered
Amongst many honours bestowed upon him, Moore was appointed an OBE and then a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II, before his eventual knighthood in 2001. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was awarded a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship by the University of Leicester, an institution with whom Moore had a long association.
In 2012 he travelled to the National Space Centre to open our renamed Sir Patrick Moore Planetarium, the UK’s largest planetarium, to ensure his legacy would carry on in inspiring new generations of stargazers.
Sir Patrick Moore passed away on 9 December 2012, leaving behind a huge hole in both British culture and the astronomical world. Easily identifiable to children and grandparents alike, Moore’s zest and passion to both inform and entertain will make sure that the man with the monocle will live on in our collective memory for years to come.
