The Race for the Double Helix (also known as Double Helix and Life Story ) is a 1987 TV film dramatisation of the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953. Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or deoxyribose nucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and many viruses). ...

The film tells the story of the rivalries of the two teams in the race to the discovery - Francis Crick & James D. Watson at Cambridge University and Maurice Wilkins & Rosalind Franklin at King's College, London Photomontage of Francis Crick lecturing Professor Francis Harry Compton Crick, OM FRS (June 8, 1916 – July 28, 2004) was a British physicist, molecular biologist and neuroscientist, most noted for being one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. ... James Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is one of the discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world (after Oxford). ... Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (December 15, 1916 – October 5, 2004) was a New Zealand born physicist and Nobel Laureate who contributed research in the fields of phosphorescence, radar, isotope separation, and X-ray diffraction. ... Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Elsie Franklin (July 25, 1920 - April 16, 1958) was a British physical chemist and crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine structures of coal, DNA and viruses. ... Kings College London (often abbreviated to KCL) in London is one of the largest colleges in the federal University of London, with 19,500 registered students. ...

The role of Watson is played by Jeff Goldblum and the role of Franklin is played by Juliet Stevenson. Crick is played by Tim Piggott Smith. Jeffrey Lynn Jeff Goldblum (born October 22, 1952) is a Jewish American film actor. ... Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson (b. ...

There is some excellent music composed by Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and some interesting 1950's style molecular models.

The film manages to convey the loneliness and competitiveness of scientific research but also educates the viewer as to how the structure of DNA was discovered. In particular, it explores the tension between patient, dedicated lab work (Franklin) and intuitive leaps fueled by ambition and poached results (Watson and Crick), against a background of institutional turf wars and misogyny. Jokes Watson, plugging the path of intuition: "Blessed are they who believed before there was any evidence." The film also shows why Watson and Crick truly earned their discovery: they overtook their competitors in part by reasoning from genetic function to predict chemical structure, thus helping to establish the then still-nascent field of molecular biology. Nevertheless, Franklin would rightly have shared the Nobel Prize had she not died tragically of cancer before it was awarded. All of this is insightfully examined in the supplementary materials to the Norton Critical Edition of Watson's book The Double Helix (ISBN 0393950751), to which the film makes a fine companion. Space-filling model of a section of DNA molecule Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or deoxyribose nucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions specifying the biological development of all cellular forms of life (and many viruses). ... Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. ... Photographs of Nobel Prize Medals. ... James Watson The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA is an autobiographical account of the discovery of structure of DNA. It was written by James D. Watson and published in 1968. ...

Note that in the EDDE Entertainment VHS version (EDO280 1993), a few scenes are inexplicably (and confusingly) cut.