Did anyone catch The Narnia Code last night? It was pretty interesting, although not presented the way I'd have liked.

It was basically plugging Michael Ward's theory set out in Planet Narnia, that the Narnia novels are based upon the medieval model of the solar system. And once it started talking about the theory and the basis for Ward's claims, it was pretty interesting.

Except that for the first half of the programme it kept us in suspense, filling in background to Lewis's life and hinting at this amazing discovery. Which is a big UR Doing it Wrong in academic discussion, which is supposed to outline the theory and then back it up. The biographical bits were well done, but the sense of keeping the viewer waiting got a bit wearing because I had no idea what conclusion I was being shepherded towards or how OMG!AMAZING it was actually going to be.

Once they'd outlined the theory there also wasn't enough devotion to the texts themselves - it was mostly academics discussing reactions to the theory. What we did hear of it sounded very interesting, but Ward only explained three of the books' links to their planet, and those very briefly. Obviously he wants to sell his book, but I don't like to think I buy academic works for the twist ending. I'd buy the book for the detailed textual analysis that goes with the theories outlined in the programme.

Also nothing in the programme convinced me that this was a new, deeper level that made Narnia more meaningful. Assuming Ward can back up his theory with enough evidence, why is a bit of symbolism so important? Someone on the programme said that the surface story acted on one level, the allegory on a second and the secret planetary links on the third.

Why is the planetary model more important and meaningful than the allegory? Because it's hard to spot? Because whatever fundamental meaning all these academics were ascribing to the third level, it wasn't made clear in the programme.

It was an interesting programme, worth looking up on iPlayer, but it couldn't decide if it was about a)the theory or b)how Ward thought it up and what the academic world said about it. More of a) would have been nice - it seemed like Ward touting for his own show on BBC4. I don't really care about his personality - more of the theory everyone was talking about would have been nice.

(And I'm not sure I buy the idea that all the Lewis experts the BBC could possibly have found are male. Just saying.)