Could Brian Cox by the next David Attenborough? He's launched a new nature series with help from Eric Idle.

We love the Wonders of the Universe and other astronomy and cosmology documentaries hosted by astrophysicist Professor Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox). He has some unusual pronunciations, but then so did Carl Sagan, and it never stopped us loving him (remember "youmans"?).

Earlier this year, Cox was busy filming a new BBC series called Wonders of Life, including a couple of visits to Australia. You can already buy the book and an (expensive) iPad app has been out for several months.

And this week, BBC2 released a trailer for the series, to be aired in the UK early in the new year. It's a lovely clip too, with funny out-takes by Cox and overlaid with a rewrite of Eric Idle's (@EricIdle) great The Galaxy Song, performed by Idle himself and with lyrics focussing more on Earth than the cosmos:

Life is quite strange
Life is quite weird
Life is really quite odd.
Life from the stars
Is far more bizarre
Than an old beard bloke they call God.

The question people will no doubt be asking after this series, is will Brian Cox be the "new David Attenborough"? I really don't know. This trailer seems to paint a persona of a host not entirely comfortable out in the wilds—more of the British tourist a bit 'at sea' but bearing up in true British style. A contrast from Attenborough's legendary 'just try hold him back' up-in-the-trees and down-in-the-mud style. Remains to be seen whether it works. But I'm certainly keen to see it!