Ref. 28154-52JOHNNY Ball, TV personality and father of Zoe, shared his love of science with an audience at the Steam Museum.

About 200 people turned up to hear the former presenter of programmes ranging from Playschool to Think Of A Number enthuse about the history of science and technology on Saturday evening.

Delivering the museum's annual Christmas family lecture, Johnny paid tribute to pioneering railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Other great names of the past to feature in Johnny's lecture, called Funtastic Science, were Archimedes, Galileo and Newton.

The 90-minute presentation was Steam's third Christmas lecture.

Last year Dr Patrick Harding discussed the myth and magic of Christmas, and the year before Adam Hart-Davis gave a talk on Victorian pioneers.

Emma Valentine, spokeswoman for the Steam Museum, said: "Johnny Ball has lots of personality and can appeal and talk to people of all ages.

"Funtastic Science was a very lively talk about some of the key figures throughout the ages who have made breakthrough scientific discoveries."