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The Great Egg Race

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The Great Egg Race was a BBC television series that ran from 1979 to 1986 broadcast on BBC 2. Twenty-two episodes were produced and presented by six presenters over the life of the show.

Programme

The Great Egg Race was a BBC television series that ran from 1979 to 1986 broadcast on BBC 2.[1]

Presented by Brian Cant (1979), Johnny Ball (1980), Hilary Henson (1980–81), Charlotte Allen (1982), Professor Heinz Wolff (originally head judge, head presenter from 1983)[2], and Lesley Judd, who joined the series in 1984.[3]

Re-edited 15-minute episodes of the original show were later made for BBC Choice in 2000, under the title The Great Egg Race Rides Again.[3]

The show featured teams creating Heath Robinson-esque mechanical creations in an attempt to solve a problem set at the start of the show. The series obtained its name from the initial challenge of making a device capable of transporting an egg in a rubber-band-powered vehicle the furthest possible distance without breaking it. After the initial egg-related challenges, other non-egg events were introduced.[1]

In the first episode, as well as the egg-carrying challenge between several devices, three teams[4] had to precision weigh three items – a feather, an egg and a household brick (a weight range 10000:1) – using a 50g weight and ordinary domestic items.[1] In the last episode the two teams sole challenge was to take an aerial photograph of an offshore oil rig.[3]

Scoring was given for "design", "courage" and "entertainment".[5]

The producers were Peter Bruce (12 episodes, 1979–80) and Charles Huff (10 episodes, 1983-86). Specialist judges included Professor Michael French, Fred Dibnah.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "The Great Egg Race: Cracking feats of engineering". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  2. ^ Grierson, Jamie (16 December 2017). "Heinz Wolff, scientist and Great Egg Race presenter, dies at 89". the guardian.com. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "The Great Egg Race". UKGameshows. Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  4. ^ EMI, Post Office, and Leicester Polytechnic
  5. ^ "Putting on the Pressure" 1984, at 27 minutes
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