The Grand Tour’s Richard Hammond visits some of the planet’s most impressive and largest feats of engineering in Richard Hammond’s Big on Discovery
It has a title that sounds like one of Clarkson and May’s jokes, but new series Richard Hammond’s Big on Discovery sees the presenter look at some of the world’s biggest structures, machines and vessels.
Tonight, he visits the Volkswagen car plant in Wolfsburg, Germany (pictured above) – about three times the size of Monaco!
TV Times caught up with ‘The Hamster’, 50, to find out more…
What’s the aim of Richard Hammond’s Big?
We’re setting out to show the problems that being so big can bring, whether it’s a big factory, plane, ship, dam or bridge.
We’re showing how that changes the thought behind it.
It’s as much about people as it is about engineering and science, as these things only exist in the context of people.
What other ‘big’ things are you looking at?
There’s the Brenner Base Tunnel beneath the Alps, which is the world’s longest underground tunnel, and the Marie Maersk container ship, which is a quarter-of-a-mile long.
And we watch a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane doing air-to-air refuelling, which was so tense.
What’s the biggest of all these ‘big’ things?
We want to be more challenging in terms of what we describe as ‘the biggest’.
For instance, the VW car plant is made up of dozens of buildings, but it is one big thing.
For full listings, see our TV Guide.
TV Times rating: ***
