Brian Cox to give live lecture on BBC Two

The BBC has announced that professor Brian Cox is to deliver a live lecture on BBC Two next year, discussing some of the most challenging concepts in physics.

The programme, currently under the working title A Night With The Stars, will see Cox go "back to basics" with a lecture in front of a live audience of famous faces, scholars and amateur enthusiasts.

Cox will discuss a range of physics concepts in the 60-minute lecture, including quarks, leptons and the Higgs boson particle, along with the secrets behind the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. The programme will air on BBC Two next year.

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said: "A Night With The Stars is a great opportunity to combine Brian's scientific expertise with the natural, witty and spontaneous talent that we have seen on Stargazing Live and on The Infinite Monkey Cage on Radio 4. It's an exciting new departure for Brian Cox in 2012."

A Night With The Stars was commissioned by Kim Shillinglaw, and will be executive produced by Andrew Cohen, head of science at BBC Productions.

This weekend, Cox will record a special edition of The Infinite Monkey Cage at the Glastonbury festival with comedian Robin Ince and musician Billy Bragg.