|
Britain’s Greatest Machines – Series 1
Hosted by Red Dwarf’s Chris Barrie,
the first series of Britain’s Greatest Machines runs a generous
three hours and proves a typically exhaustive and well-presented effort
from National Geographic.
The series, as the title would suggest,
aims to explore the principal feats of British engineering that have
helped shaped the modern world. Each of its four episodes is devoted to
a particular decade, charting the development of early commercial
airliners, the rise of the motorcar and the mass production techniques
that revolutionised the availability of machines. The show also looks
at some of the principal works of wartime engineering, charting the
origins and historical context of each and detailing how some of these
impressive creations – such as the fearsome Crusader tank – were used to
put the frighteners of Fritz during WWII.
The episodes featured are:
1930s: The Road to War
Barrie manages to set aside his fear of
flying long enough to take a ride in the Dragon Rapide, a 1930s 8-seater
aircraft that provides the first commercial flights between London and
Paris, boasting flight time of just over three hours. Barrie also
helms an A4 Gressly train, the world’s fastest steam locomotive, test
drives the Morris road vehicle of the day and looks at how many of the
engineering breakthroughs of the era were later put to use in developing
wartime technology such as the pride of the British air force, the
Spitfire.
1950s: A New World Order
The post-WWII period brought new challenges
for a Britain which was determined to remain a world leader in
engineering and technology in the face of a new world order dominated by
bickering superpowers. This episode sees Barrie firing up another array
of impressive machines, including a Deltic Diesel locomotive and a
Vulcan bomber, and charting the interesting and unlikely role of the
Lovell Telescope in the Cold War.
1960s: Revolution By Design
Chris Barrie gets some speed in Monte Carlo
at the wheel of a Mini Cooper and also takes a look at one of the
period’s more overlooked methods of vehicular transport – the
hovercraft. The rise of that most quintessentially British creature,
the ‘white van man,’ is discussed, and Barrie channels the spirit of the
Swinging 60s by hosting a Miss World competition – for cars.
1980s: The Future Has Landed
In this episode Barrie lives the dream of
anyone who grew up in the 1980s by taking a ride in a DeLorean DMC.
That’s right – time machine from Back to the Future. The
inventions discussed are once more intelligently laid out against a
potent historical and psychological backdrop of the Falklands War, oil
crises and the decline of traditional manufacturing techniques, and the
series comes to a fitting close with a look at the Sinclair C-5 and some
of the world’s most high-performance sports cars.
Audio & Video
The series is beautifully shot and Barrie,
despite these days bearing an uncanny resemblance to a hamster, proves a
likable and charismatic host. Picture quality is excellent and the
anamorphic 16:9 widescreen presentation the perfect platform for the
series’ detailed exposition of all things mechanical. A selection of
well-sourced period footage and wartime photography adds an additional
layer of insight to the proceedings and sound quality is also strong,
with the DD 2.0 soundtrack featured on most Nat Geo documentaries again
proving more than adequate. No special features are includes but the
set opens with a couple of trailers. |
