Well over a century ago, a forgotten inventor was using an electric car to commute to his offices in Wolverhampton, a true pioneer of eco transport. Brendan Walker uncovers the story of Thomas Parker and of the 21st century innovators putting the Midlands at the heart of a revolution in eco-friendly transport.
Paralympic swimmer Kate Grey hasn't used her plastic NHS-issue prosthetic arm for years. In the pool, it got in the way. Now she's taken up cycling, she needs a new limb to replace the hand she lost in a sausage machine at her grandparents' farm when she was two. Through her own story, Kate explores the world of prosthetic inventors. She tries out the latest 3D-printed bionics being pioneered by West Country inventors, as well as the first prosthetics manufactured by Chard shoemaker James Gillingham 150 years ago, and explores how x-rays, also pioneered in Chard, helped revolutionise medical care for amputees.
Documentary looking at how a sleepy corner of Cornwall became the centre of a huge feat of technological, scientific and human achievement.
Dr Shini Somara takes a journey around the region exploring the ways inventors, entrepreneurs and scientists have pushed the boundaries of interactivity. From Logie Baird's televisor invented in Hastings, through the early days of online shopping and Big Brother, which put TV on the internet - our relationship with technology has changed immeasurably.
In this half hour episode, presenter Rob Bell finds out about the south of England's great innovations in the sporting world. Dr Angelo Grubisic is an aeronautical engineer and British silver medallist in wing suit performance. He teaches at Southampton University and convinced them to allow him to set up the Icarus Project to develop the world's first scientifically engineered wing suit. His designs aim to increase safety in the sport and to set world records for human flight. On the Isle of Wight Gary Lambert has developed a very special system to enable his 19-year-old daughter Natasha, who has cerebral palsy, to achieve her sporting dreams. It may have taken Gary nine years, and with no experience in sailing or electronics, he has adapted the already tested sip-and-puff technology and advanced it to a whole new level - tongue-switch technology, which allows Natasha total control of the boat using her mouth. It's given Natasha a real sense of freedom and Gary hopes to adapt the system in the future to help other disabled people. Dr Paul Hawkins is the genius behind Hawkeye, the tracking software used in tennis, cricket and rugby that has revolutionised the way sport is played around the world, by making the decision one hundred percent accurate. Paul shares how Hawkeye came about, and invites us to Italy to see his latest invention - VAR or Video Assisted Refereeing in action. It is being trialled in football matches across Europe, with the hope of being used across all football games around the world, to help the referee with decisions as to whether a ball was offside or a goal was scored. And Rob tries out a motorsport for the masses that was invented in the south in 1973 - lawnmower racing! And we learn how the lawnmower has in fact had an impact on our favourite sports. Previously lawns were costly and laborious to maintain but mowers made neat lawns available to everyone. Cricket, rugby and football pitches could be trimmed to the exact length neede
From steam-powered submarines to magnificent women and their flying machines, from miniature spy photos to World War II-winning ideas. Professor Danielle George goes on a mission of discovery to uncover the unsung inventors of the north west who changed the world when it comes to defence on air, sea and land.
Inventor Dominic Wilcox takes us on a journey around the north east meeting the creative, quirky and scientific minds who are transforming the transport of tomorrow. Discover how whacky shoes, glass cars, windowless planes, luminous lollipops and intelligent tyres will change the way we get from A to B.
From the world's first computer programmer to the multimillion-pound apps of today, techie Suzi Perry takes a journey to uncover London's technology pioneers of the past, present and future.
Marty Jopson tells the incredible story of how northern inventions have helped us to conquer the skies. He tells the story of the world's first manned flight, made in North Yorkshire over 50 years before the Wright Brothers, and the invention that shrunk the world in the 20th century: the jet. He brings the story up to date with the Rotherham firm inventing unmanned aircraft to do everything from monitoring polluting ships, to finding people lost at sea.
These days cloth is no longer just something we wear to keep warm. Inventors in the east Midlands are leading the world in discovering new uses for textiles. Scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock finds out how cloth is being used in medicine, industry and sport to change our lives for the better. There's the car seat that stops us falling asleep at the wheel, the implant that's saving people's lives and the fastest textile in the world.
East Anglia is a region shaped by water so it's not surprising that many inventions from the east of England are connected to the sea, either by the benefits it affords or the tragedies it causes. Dr Aarathi Prasad explores some water-related inventions - first the hovercraft , a celebrated,and at times ill-fated,British invention conceived on a stately Suffolk estate. Then she meets a husband-and-wife team who build unique flood protection barriers in a Norfolk blacksmith's forge, after which she tackles the challenge from a serial Essex inventor who makes filthy water safe to drink. Finally, there's a 19th-century eccentric who designed life-saving apparatus that is still used today the world over.