Episodes

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01Colour Vision20130128In this series of five programmes, Tracey Logan dives into the world of colour, from biology to fashion.

Programme 1/5: Vision

We create all the colours we see around us. Cone cells in our eyes allow us to discriminate up to 10 million different hues. But not everyone's eyes contain the same type of cells, and this can change the range of colours we detect.

Tracey finds out what it's like to be colour blind and why there may be some women with superhuman colour vision, who can see more colours than the rest of us.

Presenter: Tracey Logan

Producer: Michelle Martin.

Tracey finds out how our bodies create colour and sees the world through colour-blind eyes

Tracey Logan explores the world of colour, from biology to fashion

02Colour Naming20130129Tracey Logan explores how language changes our colour perception.

Tracey Logan explores the world of colour, from biology to fashion

03Feeling Colour20130130

3/5: Colour and Behaviour

Does blue make you feel calm and red, ferociously angry? Myths abound surrounding the way different colours affect us. In this programme, Tracey gets to the bottom of whether colour really can change the way we behave.

She visits a psychologist who is testing which colours make us more creative and finds out why women may benefit from wearing red on a date.

Producer: Michelle Martin.

Does colour change the way we feel and behave? Tracey Logan investigates.

Tracey Logan explores the world of colour, from biology to fashion

04Making Colour20130131

Programme 4/5: Making colour
The first synthetic dye - a bright mauve - was discovered by accident in 1856 by an 18-year-old chemistry student. Since then, making colour has become a billion dollar industry across the globe.
Tracey Logan visits Hainsworth in Leeds, the oldest dye house in the UK, to discover how they make create a huge range of fabrics, from scarlet coats for military uniforms to green baize for snooker tables.
But our love for colour has a darker side - the commercial dyeing industry has been criticised for its poor environmental record across the world, from excessive water use to dangerous waste products. Tracey meets the chemists from Leeds University attempting to make 'greener' dyes.
Producer: Michelle Martin.

Tracey Logan visits a traditional dye house in Leeds to see how they create colour.

Tracey Logan explores the world of colour, from biology to fashion

05Selling Colour201302015/5: Selling Colour

Emerald may be the new black for 2013, but the process by which designers select next season's colours is a story that goes back to World War I. Tracey Logan finds out why a naval blockade, cutting Paris fashion houses off from the rest of the world, created today's colour forecasting industry.

Nowadays, retailers have tight controls over the colours they choose and how they are produced. Tracey visits Marks & Spencer to find out how digital technology ensures they manufacture exactly the same shade of green across different fabrics, from your woollen coat to leather shoes.

Producer: Michelle Martin.

Tracey Logan discovers how the colour forecasting industry arose out of World War I.

Tracey Logan explores the world of colour, from biology to fashion