Jean-Baptiste Gouyon is the author of BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough, published in 2019 (Palgrave). The book traces the history of wildlife television in Britain from the beginnings of TV in 1936 to the first decade of the 21st Century. It revolves around the figure of David Attenborough whose influence on wildlife broadcasting in Britain has been epoch-making, and looks at the relationship between wildlife television and the life sciences, mostly zoology and ethology. More broadly, Gouyon’s research is in the history of the presentation of science in visual media. In addition to wildlife TV, he’s also published on the history of British science television as well as on the history of the Science Museum.

His research rests mostly on the study of archival material (documents and films) as well as on oral history interviews with television science producers past and present. He notably produced a series of 17 oral history interviews with past producers and editors of the BBC science series Horizon, as part of his ongoing exploration of the history of this series.

Gouyon’s research interests are in the study of science in public, the sociology and history of the life sciences, the human animal relationship.