It has to be said that the premise of Peter Snow’s bustling 10-parter (12-23 October) was incorrigibly twee. Displaying all the enthusiasm that distinguished his years on the election-night swingometer, Snow affected to strap a series of guests into the passenger seat of his “DeLorean super car”. This vehicle, which made a kind of whooshing  rather reminiscent of the opening bars of the old Hawkwind hit “Silver Machine”, then transported presenter and guest back and forth in time as they chewed over various theories of scientific and cultural development.Where did the interviewees want to be taken? Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson had himself whisked back to a dark satanic mill of the Victorian era and then forward to 3800, where technology had made wo