Engineering ingenuity reflected an era of economic progress and might – a force that altered the course of people’s lives and shaped the geographical boundaries as we know it today. Watch ‘Britain’s Greatest Machines – A New World Order’ on National Geographic Abu Dhabi on Tuesday,15 June at 11:00 pm UAE & 10 pm KSA for a journey with acclaimed British actor Chris Barrier as he explores the wartime era of the 1950s and looks at the metal monsters that defined and created Britain’s legacy as an engineering and military super power.
Taking a concrete approach to history, Chris takes a Route Master bus down to his local skidpan and fires up a Vulcan bomber. He even takes the controls of a Deltic Diesel locomotive as he finds out how wartime technology and materials were used to build groundbreaking new machines. The automotive admirer visits the Lovell Telescope to find out how a peaceful post-war radio telescope became embroiled in the Cold War. Chris Barrie re-visits the superb but ultimately doomed design of the world’s first jet airliner before taking to the original "Jungle" Test Track with one of Britain's greatest international successes, the Land Rover.
In the ‘Britain’s Greatest Machines’ series, Chris puts the engineering achievements of each era into the context of the bigger picture of British history, tackling the subject one decade at a time. In this first series, the four episodes tackle the 1930s, 50s, 60s and 80s. Chris tells the stories of these mechanical icons with passion, wit and a great deal of expertise. With his own eclectic collection of restored vintage and classic vehicles, this is a subject close to his heart, and Chris actually drives or operates many of the vehicles in the series. He'll be digging out the moments of invention and engineering genius that made these machines so special, and revealing new information and stories behind all of them.
