Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections is a British documentary series originally broadcast on the National Geographic Channel, and later on BBC2. It is presented by Richard Hammond, and looks at how engineers and designers use historic inventions and clues from the natural world in ingenious ways to develop new buildings and machines. The show's format is very similar to that of James Burke's 1978 documentary series, Connections. The first series premièred on 8 September 2008, on National Geographic, and on 1 March 2010, on BBC2. The first series contained four episodes. The second series premièred on 7 September 2009, on National Geographic, and on 8 May 2010, on BBC2. The second series contained six episodes. The third series premièred on 8 May 2011, on BBC2 and contained six episodes. The BBC2 broadcasts of the first two series have a slightly shorter running time and contain less information than the original National Geographic broadcasts, with on average one minute of footage cut from every episode. None of the three series of the programme are available to purchase on DVD in the UK, however, all three can be watched on demand for subscribers of National Geographic on Sky, Virgin Media and BT Vision. In Australia, all three series are available on DVD, either separately or as a box-set.
| Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Presented by | Richard Hammond |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company | Darlow Smithson Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | National Geographic Channel |
| Release | 8 September 2008 – 12 June 2011 |
Episode list
editSeries 1 (2008)
edit| No. in season | Title | Directed by | Original air date | BBC airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Airbus A380" | Kenny Scott | 8 September 2008 | 1 March 2010 |
| 2 | "Taipei Tower" | Mike Slee | 15 September 2008 | 8 March 2010 |
| 3 | "Deep Space Observer" | Nick Metcalfe | 22 September 2008 | 15 March 2010 |
| 4 | "Super Rig" | Nick Metcalfe | 29 September 2008 | 22 March 2010 |
Series 2 (2009)
edit| No. in season | Title | Original air date [1] | BBC airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Wembley Stadium" | 7 September 2009 | 8 May 2010 |
| 2 | "Sydney Opera House" | 14 September 2009 | 15 May 2010 |
| 3 | "HMS Illustrious" | 21 September 2009 | 22 May 2010 |
| 4 | "Guggenheim Bilbao" | 28 September 2009 | 29 May 2010 |
| 5 | "Millau Sky Bridge" | 5 October 2009 | 5 June 2010 |
| 6 | "Hong Kong International Airport" | 11 October 2009 | 12 June 2010 |
Series 3 (2011)
edit| No. in season | Title | NGC AU & NZ Airdate | BBC2 airdate [2] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Burj Al Arab" | 25 January 2011[3] | 8 May 2011 |
| 2 | "Formula 1" | TBA | 15 May 2011 |
| 3 | "Super Tankers" | 4 January 2011[4] | 22 May 2011 |
| 4 | "The Earthquake-Proof Bridge" | TBA | 29 May 2011 |
| 5 | "Space Shuttle" | TBA | 5 June 2011 |
| 6 | "Bullet Train" | 3 February 2011[5] | 12 June 2011 |
BBC2 episodes ratings
editSeries 1
edit| No. | Episode | UK air date | Viewers (millions) | Audience share in timeslot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Airbus A380" | 15 February 2009 | 2.89[6] | 10.7%[6] |
| 2 | "Taipei 101" | 22 February 2009 | 2.63[7] | 9.6%[7] |
| 3 | "Deep Space Observer" | 1 March 2009 | 2.15[8] | 8.1%[8] |
| 4 | "Super Rig" | 8 March 2009 | 2.66[9] | 9.7%[9] |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections – Episode Guids – Series 2". Archived from the original on 11 September 2009. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ^ "Engineering Connections (TV Series 2008– ) - IMDb". IMDb.
- ^ "TUESDAY JANUARY 25". Press, The (Christchurch, New Zealand). 25 January 2011. pp. –005. ISSN 0113-9762. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ CUTHBERTSON, IAN (1 January 2011). "QUICK BITES - Tuesday January 4". Weekend Australian (Australia). p. 028. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ Heysen, with Kirsty (30 January 2011). "Best on FOXTEL". Sunday Mail (Adelaide, Australia). pp. –17. ISSN 1039-4184. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ^ a b Wilkes, Neil (16 February 2009). "Paxman's 'Victorians' interest 4.3m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ^ a b Wilkes, Neil (23 February 2009). "'Lost' winning Sunday night ratings battle". Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ^ a b French, Dan (2 March 2009). "'Being Human' ends run with 822,000". Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
- ^ a b French, Dan (9 March 2009). "Piers Morgan show boosted by Katie Price". Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
