Tom Gorham

Chris Barrie's Massive Speed follows on from the series Massive Engines and Massive Machines , both of which were also presented by petrolhead Chris (of Red Dwarf fame). In Massive Speed Chris turns his attention to the evolution of machines designed purely to achieve maximum speed. He travels the world searching for the most thrilling, speed-packed machines he can find and introduces audiences to huge engined bikes, planes, trucks and boats that battle it out in power races. Whether it's crossing an otherwise impenetrable snow drift, desert or swamp at the speed of an Olympic sprinter or cutting through the atmosphere at six times the speed of sound, Chris tells the stories of the greatest achievements of speed design and engineering. In each episode Chris follows the evolution of a specific genre of machine by testing them and reveals both the classsic stories and secret histories that surround each of them.

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Concorde was an icon of the skies, but on 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 left Paris for New York and caught fire during take-off before crashing to the ground just over a minute later, killing everyone on board. The tragedy brought an end to the dream of supersonic passenger flight. But what caused the disaster? Investigators, survivors’ loved ones and those who examined the wreckage recall the tragedy and describe how the evidence led to a shockingly simple conclusion about what went wrong.

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Survivors and witnesses recall March 11 2011 - when Japan was hit by a devastating tsunami of 40-foot waves, killing 20,000 and triggering a nuclear meltdown.

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Tragedy struck when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds into flight. Hours earlier, engineers argued to cancel the launch, amid fears of such a tragedy – so why did it go ahead?

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Massive engineering mistakes occur all over the world, some with devastating consequences. These are assessed by design teams, eyewitnesses, and experts who analyze what went wrong and how the engineers fixed the mistakes.

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Concorde was an icon of the skies, but on 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 left Paris for New York and caught fire during take-off before crashing to the ground just over a minute later, killing everyone on board. The tragedy brought an end to the dream of supersonic passenger flight. But what caused the disaster? Investigators, survivors’ loved ones and those who examined the wreckage recall the tragedy and describe how the evidence led to a shockingly simple conclusion about what went wrong.

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Survivors and witnesses recall March 11 2011 - when Japan was hit by a devastating tsunami of 40-foot waves, killing 20,000 and triggering a nuclear meltdown.

Open details →

Tragedy struck when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated just 73 seconds into flight. Hours earlier, engineers argued to cancel the launch, amid fears of such a tragedy – so why did it go ahead?

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Massive engineering mistakes occur all over the world, some with devastating consequences. These are assessed by design teams, eyewitnesses, and experts who analyze what went wrong and how the engineers fixed the mistakes.

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Explorer, adventurer and survival expert Ed Stafford faces a brand new challenge in "Left for Dead". Dropped in to a remote location, Ed has up to 10 days to reach a rendezvous point, meet his extraction transport and get out alive. If he doesn't make it he faces even more time in isolation, the humility of calling in team support and the embarrassment of failure!

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