The Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925 is the most famous showdown so far between evolution and creationism. Rather than going into the rights and wrongs of the scientific issues, this documentary looks at the personalities and movements behind the event, using contemporary newsreel footage, photographs and newspapers, as well as the usual interviews with historians and biographers, plus relatively subtle reenactments, to help the viewer understand what it was like to be there.

The trial was actually set up by a group of ‘civic boosters’, trying to put their little town on the map, as the coal and iron mines were closing down. John Scopes, a football coach who also taught general science, agreed to their plan. He was duly arrested, but took little part in the ensuing media circus. An amazing photo shows the civic leaders and Scopes smiling together in Robinson’s Drug Store.

The battle was fought between three-time Democrat presidential nominee and devout Christian, William Jennings Bryan, and America’s most famous defence attorney, atheist Clarence Darrow. The town was besieged by more than a hundred journalists, including the famous satirist HL Mencken, and the trial was broadcast live on radio. The circus atmosphere was increased by the huge numbers of visitors to Dayton, supporters of one side or the other, and by the heat. Souvenir sellers, a trained chimpanzee named Joe Mendi and a gorilla in a cage enlivened the proceedings.