David Tennant and Andy Serkis star in this one-off drama for BBC Two, based on the intertwined lives of two of the most significant men in 20th-century science.

A BBC/HBO co-production, Einstein And Eddington takes a closer look at the story behind the creation of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and the personal lives of the men behind it. The all-star cast also includes Jim Broadbent (Longford), Lucy Cohu (The Queen’s Sister), Rebecca Hall (Starter For Ten) and Jodhi May (Friends & Crocodiles).

This human story chronicles two men who, during the First World War, refused to accept narrow nationalistic boundaries and, against the odds, continued to strive for a greater truth. Between them, they changed the world and proved one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century.

Opening in 1913, the drama tells the story of the then obscure German theorist Albert Einstein (Serkis), who had spent years working on his General Theory of Relativity, one that threatened two centuries of Newtonian certainty and the foundations of British science.

British scientist Arthur Eddington (Tennant) was one of the most prominent astrophysicists and Director of the Cambridge Observatory, a seat originally held by the father of British science, Sir Isaac Newton. Eddington’s wholehearted belief that “truth knows no boundaries” led him to start a correspondence with Einstein and to solely champion Einstein’s theories at a time when the rest of the British scientific community, and the public at large, were rejecting anything German, due to the country’s role in the First World War.

Eddington’s expedition to Africa to photograph light bending round the sun during an eclipse led to his proof that Einstein’s theory is right, turning Einstein into a worldwide superstar in 1919.

Einstein And Eddington was written by Peter Moffat (Hawking). It is produced by Mark Pybus (Wallis & Edward) and directed by Philip Martin (Hawking, Prime Suspect).

Moffat and Martin are reunited following the award-winning Hawking, BBC Two’s 2005 biopic of Stephen Hawking, who is considered the greatest mind in physics since Einstein.

Saturday 22 November
9.10-10.40pm BBC TWO