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Series FSeries GSeries E - EngineeringWith Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr and Bill Bailey. In-Depth Episode SynopsisWarning: the below synopsis may contain spoilers
Theme
- Stephen has a toy train and sweets which he can deliver to anyone who gives a quite interesting answer. Topics
- The people who built Britain's railways were the navvies. They were trained for a year and were fed on a diet of meat and beer. They could out-perform any other manual labourer. - Tangent: Railways had to be flat when they were first made. Bill tells the story of the Russian Tsar who ordered the Trans-Siberian railway to be a straight line. He drew the line with a ruler, but his fingers were over the edge of the ruler, so two large curves were built in. Bill gets a sweet for his answer.
- Tangent: The London to Birmingham Railway took the same amount of work to build as one-and-a-half Great Pyramids. Rob's discussion about 'what is half a pyramid' gets him a sweet.
- "Navvy" is short for "Navigational engineer". Alan gets a sweet for the correct answer. - Tangent: When the Central Pacific Railway was being built, the track was laid as fast as a man could walk.
- Eton College did not want a railway station built in Slough (Jimmy's hometown) because they were worried that its pupils would take the train to visit prostitutes. - Tangent: A travel book once advised that women railway passengers should stick pins in their mouths so men would not kiss them in tunnels.
- For 18 birthdays in a row, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's birthday present was that the sun would shine through the Box Tunnel on his birthday (9th April). Jimmy gets a sweet for the right answer. General Ignorance
- A vampire bat is most likely to bite you on the big toe. - Tangent: One member of the audience claimed that the biggest load of the rubbish in the world was France.
Vodcast/Quickie
(Presenter: Bill Bailey) - Tangent: Tourist attractions such as the London Eye and a fairground ride went quicker because Alan was on it. According to Alan anyway.
- Tangent: Jimmy talks about new winners of the Darwin Awards.
- Tangent: Vaseline rots latex.
Scores
- Rob Brydon: 11 points First Broadcast DetailsDate:
Fri 21st September 2007
Time:
22.00
Channel:
BBC Two
Ratings:
2.81 million viewers
Length:
30 minutes
Episode Cast & Crew
Video Clips From This EpisodeVodcast of the "Engineering" episode. |
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