Thank you so much for joining me today, Mr Darwin,
for your only interview of 2020.
Yes, hello.
Now, I hear today is your 211th birthday.
Happy birthday.
And might I just say, you don't look a day over 200?
Oh, thank you,
although I have been dead for the past 138 years, so...
Now, tell me about the Beagle.
Ah, yes. A scent hound bred primarily for hunting hare.
Yeah. No, I meant the ship.
Oh. (GLASS SHATTERING)
Ah, yes.
A ship that was charting the waters of the South Americas,
and I joined the crew in 1831 as a naturalist. Naturally.
I spent five years travelling the world,
searching for new specimens to study.
(CAWING)
During my trip around the Galapagos and Cocos Islands,
I spent a lot of time studying finches.
Actually, they were probably passeriformes
of the Thraupidae family,
but everyone calls them Darwin's finches.
Anyway, I noticed something very interesting.
These birds all had distinctly different beaks -
some with strong beaks that ate mostly nuts,
others with narrow beaks that ate mostly insects.
It's as if nature had selected the exact right beak
for the birds' preferred food source.
Ah, yes, your famous theory of natural selection.
Tell me, what's that all about?
Let's take this cage of finches, for example.
(FINCHES CHIRP)
Where did you get that cage of finches?
Each of these finches is unique.
They have slight natural variations,
and some of those differences make finches better at surviving.
Now, take Ethel here.
Hello, Ethel.
Imagine Ethel had a slightly stronger beak.
That might make her better at cracking hard seeds or nuts,
so she'd get more food,
which means she's more likely to survive and have babies,
and she might pass on her strong beak to some of them.
Or say Charlie here has a slightly narrower beak,
which would make him just a little bit better
at catching insects in little holes.
So, he might be more likely to survive
and have narrow-beaked babies.
Over enough time, you might see
two different types of finches appear -
some with narrow beaks, some with strong beaks.
So, what you're saying is that natural selection is
the process by which organisms
that are best suited to survive their environment
are more likely to reproduce,
and through that process,
different species have evolved from a common ancestor.
Precisely.
And that's why we're all monkeys.
No, no, no, no. I...I never said that.
I merely pointed out the obvious similarities
between humans and apes.
It follows that they evolved from a common ancestor.
Now, you've written several books, including your bestseller
on The Origin Of Species, which is still regarded
as one of the most important works of science.
Was it an instant hit?
Well, there were...mixed reactions.
Aaargh! (GASPS)
Argh! Oh.
You have to understand that people in my part of the world
were fairly religious and didn't take too well
to the idea of things evolving.
In fact, it took me quite a while to get my head around it at first.
But the science world went ape for it,
and why wouldn't they?
My theories explained everything -
why birds have wings,
why turtles have shells,
why a beaver looks like this,
why a duck looks like that... (QUACKING)
..and why a platypus looks like...well, everything.
And do you know what?
Ever since then, scientists have only added to my theories.
Now, it forms the very backbone of biology.
Well, thank you, Mr Darwin.
It has certainly been enlightening.
Well, thank you for having me,
and would you like a finch?
I've got plenty of them.