Hawking is a BBC television dramatisation of physicist Stephen Hawking's early career while at the University of Cambridge.

The start of the film shows Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson getting prepared for a TV interview just an hour before they are due to collect a Nobel prize. During the interview it shows the story of how a strange hissing sound they discovered inside a huge satellite receiver won them their prize. Then the story cuts to Stephen Hawking's 21st birthday party where Stephen is not partying but, in fact, is seated in his front room, watching Sir Fred Hoyle talk about his steady state theory. When the programme has finished, Stephen enters his party and is delighted to see Jane Wilde, a girl he met at another party, standing in the room. Later, Stephen and Jane go out into the back garden where they lie on the grass and discuss the sky. When Stephen attempts to get up, he cannot, which causes Jane to worry and run to get help.

Then the scene cuts to the hospital where Stephen is going through some sort of test. The next day in hospital a nurse moves Stephen's pillow, which causes him to have to lean forwards. During this process Stephen notices a young boy in the bed opposite him, and the nurse tells him that the boy is only 12 and is suffering from leukaemia. The next clip is of Stephen waking up the next day in hospital and noticing the young boy's bed being cleaned and re-made; he is told that the boy died in the night. Stephen then runs to the doctor who tells him he has the rare Motor Neurone Disease, which causes him to worry. Then the scene cuts to Stephen's parents talking. His father begins to tell stories about Stephen's childhood when his mother states that he has never been a sentimental man and that he should not start now. Stephen's father then tells his mother that the younger you are when you develop the disease, the faster is the deterioration.

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A television film (also known as a TV film, television movie, TV movie, telefilm, telemovie, made-for-television film, movie of the week (MOTW or MOW), feature-length drama, single drama, and original movie) is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to many films explicitly made for showing in movie theaters.

Though not exactly labelled as such, there were early precedents for "television movies", such as the 1957 The Pied Piper of Hamelin, based on the poem by Robert Browning, and starring Van Johnson, one of the first filmed "family musicals" made directly for television. It was made in Technicolor, a first for television, which ordinarily used color processes originated by specific networks. (Most "family musicals" of the time, such as Peter Pan, were not filmed but broadcast live and preserved on kinescope. A kinescope is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor). This was the only way to record a television show until the invention of videotape).

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author. His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.

Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.