The twin brothers Grichka and Igor Bogdanov, a media duo best known for having hosted the science fiction program “Temps X” broadcast from 1979 to 1987, died on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 and Monday, January 3, 2022, respectively, in Paris, at the 72 years old, their agent announced.
“Surrounded by the love of his family and his loved ones, Grichka Bogdanov passed away peacefully to join his stars,” his family wrote in a statement. A message sadly followed by that, six days later, of another concerning his brother Igor: “In peace and love, surrounded by his children and his family, Igor Bogdanov has gone towards the light”. The two icons of popular science were doctors in theoretical physics for Igor, and in mathematics for Grichka, both writers, but also television hosts where they will remain the pioneers of science for the general public on television.
Riding on the planetary success of the Star Wars film by George Lucas released two years earlier, at the age of 30, the two brothers launched in April 1979 a real UFO in the French audiovisual landscape: the program “Temps X”, a pioneering program filled with special effects which offered a reflection around the major themes of science fiction (from rockets to cloning via Minitel, etc.).
In a combination of cosmonauts and in the setting of a Star Trek-style spacecraft (piloted by Frank Dubosc), Igor and Grichka received numerous guests over nine seasons there and demonstrated anticipatory products such as “the machine. to translate ”,“ the magic dictation ”or the astro-computer”.
Internet ahead of time
Télé Star notes that the twins will have announced for example at the beginning of January 1980 the next birth of a worldwide network of information exchange which they will baptize “Internex”, whereas the Internet will not be officially born until a decade later.
The magazine, whose credits are written by Jean-Michel Jarre, also offered reports on the future, in addition to discovering fantastic series such as Le Prisonnier, La Quatrième Dimension, Doctor Who, Cosmos 1999, Beyond the real or still Astrolab 22, and thus captured the attention of millions of science fiction and anticipation fans.
At the same time, the Bogdanov brothers present 2002 – The Odyssey of the Future in 1982, and Futur’s in 1989. The last issue of Temps X will be broadcast on June 27, 1987.
Later the PAF’s most famous twins will return to the air with “X-rays” – more exactly their avatars in computer-generated images – from 2002 to 2007 on France 2, then actually in “Science X” in 2008 and 2009.
It is also on the public channel that they will present between 2010 and 2011 “A deux pas du futur”, a collection of scientific documentaries. Are we alone in the universe ? What is our brain hiding? or what if we became immortal ?. The ambition of this collection was to shed light on the fact that contemporary science would soon be the source of immense changes that would upset our daily lives.