Extremes Blue Peter

On today's show we are taking things to the extreme.

As Radzi would say, I'm amped. This is going to be off the chart.

Coming up, Radzi takes the plunge and meets some furry life-savers.

Barney helps put together the world's largest passenger plane.

I'm put through my paces by some birds that are quackers.

And the boys go head-to-head in a totally AIR-some hovercraft race.

Plus, we've got a sneak preview of two truly extreme challenges.

That's all coming up on today's Blue Peter.

Hello and welcome to Blue Peter from Switzerland.

Famous for its cows, cheese, chocolate

and Roger Federer, Switzerland is also the home of some

pretty extreme sports. Whether it's white water rafting or paragliding,

if you love adrenaline, then this is the country for it.

Switzerland is also slap-bang in the middle of Europe,

with Germany just over in the north that way,

Italy not far that way, and France just over there, which is where

Barney ended up when he went to check out some extreme engineering.

This is the extraordinary story of how an aeroplane is made.

Its parts are made all over Europe.

The tail section is made in Spain.

The rear section is made in Germany.

The wings are made in Great Britain, and then it's all

brought together and assembled in France.

Now, that sounds quite complicated.

Well, it is complicated because this is no ordinary plane.

This thing is big.

And I mean big.

Big. Big.

Big!

Big.

This is the largest passenger plane in the world.

Its tail fin is as high as an eight-storey building.

It's as long as two blue whales.

It can carry 850 passengers, and has a take off weight of 560 tonnes.

That's the same as 400 family cars.

How this thing gets off the ground in the first place is a miracle

of engineering, but it's largely to do with those mammoth wings.

Those wings are so big that in all this time of me

telling you these amazing facts,

I haven't even been able to get from one side to the other.

It's huge.

But before the wings can make this plane take flight,

each one needs to take a 1,000-mile trip from the wing factory

in Wales to the final assembly line in France.

This is where the journey begins. The wing factory in North Wales.

One wing takes 87 days to travel round the factory,

transformed from raw materials until finally

it's all wrapped up - er, literally.

But how do you move a wing the size of three double-decker buses?

Easy. You use one of these.

A mega-truck.

With a staggering 96 wheels, this is the big daddy of gadgets,

and they've given me the controller.

BACK-UP ALARM BEEPS

Oh, there's your beep.

This is brilliant.

Not too bad, that, for a first go.

Right then, let's get a wing on it. Yeah?

MUSIC: "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss

This thing is a monster.

This wing is now going to make its journey down this road

towards a barge that's waiting on some water.

The next stage of the journey begins.

And the mega-truck is so clever, it's now steering itself,

following radio signals transmitted from the road to keep

all those wheels on the straight and narrow.

Or not-so-straight, and very narrow.

With inches to spare, we've made it to the river.

Job done.

Who am I kidding?

It's another day and it's another bizarre image. Look at that.

A massive wing on a boat.

Now, the wing is going to make its next part of its journey

down the river, and hopefully under some bridges.

So the captain has got to judge it just right

because if the water level is too high,

that wing will not fit under those bridges.

That could be a problem, and if we're quick enough

we can get to that first bridge and see if it fits. Come on.

You can see how close it is from the bottom of the bridge

and the top of the boat.

That is so close.

And I'm pretty sure this next bridge is actually a lot lower,

and it doesn't look like that's going to fit from here.

It is so, so close.

This amazing wing has already had quite a journey down road

and river, over and under bridges, and now it powers on towards

the docks to be shipped to another country.

Despite all it's been through so far,

this has been the easy part of the journey.

I cannot wait to see what happens when it gets to France.

I'll see you there.

Bonjour. I don't speak French.

But I am in France, in a lovely little village called Levignac.

Lots of history here, beautiful, ornate buildings -

but it is a village, which means it's quite small

and that could be a problem.

Because this very narrow street behind me

is the only street they can use to transport the massive parts

that make the biggest passenger aeroplane in the world.

And I don't think it's going to fit.

To cause the least disruption to the locals,

the convoy must come through here at night,

which gives me time to see a finished A380 up close.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking.

I hope you're going to enjoy your flight today.

I've never flown one of these before, but it should be OK.

I'm just going to get it started.

Get the keys out the glove box, and er, yeah. We'll be on our way.

Sit back and relax and enjoy the flight. OK.

Bye.

Excellent. Right, erm...

How do we start it?

But before you can fly a plane, you have to build a plane,

and for that you need parts.

So, the wing has travelled 1,000 miles by road, river and sea,

and has finally arrived here in France,

ready for the final leg of its journey.

And you'll see it's been joined by some other parts of the plane too.

It's got to be one of the most bonkers plane jigsaws I've ever seen.

Apparently there are some really big plane parts just here,

but I can't find them.

I guess that was a tall tale.

So, this is it. The convoy is leaving.

All these parts are heading to the factory

where they're going to be assembled.

But don't forget, they've all got to get through that really tiny village,

and look at the size of it.

It doesn't even seem possible that that's going to happen.

So what we're going to do now is get back in the car,

get ahead of them all, and see if the village is still standing

by the time they get through it. Come on.

So it's just gone past midnight here in Levignac.

What would normally be a very quiet

and dimly lit street is buzzing with flashing lights.

I am so excited.

Now, this wing costs a fortune, and where it's about to go right now

is a really tight part of the village.

Look how close that is.

What an incredible thing to see. That's just the tail of a huge plane

being driven through the centre of a village after midnight.

Do you know what I think would be quite funny is the people that are up

in these houses here on the first floor

just having a cup of tea and a plane just goes past the window.

I mean, look at the size of that thing.

Just look at that.

This is the only journey that this aircraft can do to get to the factory

so they took that in mind when designing it

so that it did actually fit through the village.

That's engineering for you.

So there it is - the final piece in this rather incredible jigsaw.

The last part of the plane on its way to the factory

before it gets assembled.

So it's the last stage of its journey down here

before it begins thousands more up there.

Incredible.

Well, that looked like pretty plain sailing - and walking, and driving.

People have been taking flight in planes for more than 100 years,

but I got into a bit of a flap last year

when I was given one of my first ever Blue Peter challenges.

But in the end, I did manage to get all my ducks in a row.

Pretty much. More of a clump. But it was extremely funny.

What a lovely day in the countryside. Do you know what,

this challenge could've been a lot worse.

Though...not really sure about the outfit that Barney's

chosen for me. And that's not all he's given me.

Ahem. Shall we get these out of the way? Right.

"Hi, Lindsey. Hope you have a quacking time today.

"What do you call a cat that swallows a duck?

"A duck-filled fatty puss."

Brilliant, Barney. And finally, "Duck."

I don't really get that one.

OK. That's very funny. Thanks, Barney.

So, this is the wonderful waddling art of duck herding.

And here to show me how it's done is ten-year-old Henrietta.

She's been shepherding since she was just two.

Away!

-Hello, Henry.

-Hi, Lindsey.

-How you doing?

-I'm good, thank you.

-You're a bit of a pro at this, aren't you?

-Yeah.

Now, what are we going to need to get these in control?

First of all you're going to need a shepherd's crook.

-OK, thank you.

-I tried to find one your size.

Nice small one, very good.

And then you're going to need a sheepdog.

'Border collies are often the sheepdog of choice, and that's

'because they're a very clever breed.

'And my trusty companion for the day is Max.'

Maxy. Max.

Hi, Max.

You can teach any dog to go left, right and stop and start

-but they just...

-Hello.

-..they have a special feel for sheep.

So how do you make the dogs do what you want them to do?

The basic commands are "come by" to the left and "away" to the right.

OK, got it.

And in between every command you have to say "lie down"

so it just makes it easier for him.

Before we tackle the ducks, Henry demonstrates the commands

on a flock of sheep, using her own sheepdog, Lad.

Come by.

Get up, Lad.

-Just telling him to walk on.

-So he can hear that?

-Yeah.

Lie down.

Listen.

Oi!

-Here we go.

-Lie down.

Walk on.

There we go.

Lie down.

Come by.

Lie down.

That was amazing. Wow. Now I've got to have a go.

-Oh, dear.

-Let's go.

Away!

'Good start...'

-Will he just go and find them now?

-Yeah.

'But then...'

Come by.

-No. Come by.

-Why was that wrong?

This is terrifying.

OK. Away!

Awaaay!

Awaaay! See, I'm doing it wrong.

Lie down. Lie down!

-Oi!

-Down.

Lie down!

Why won't he lie down?

'I'm not sure Max likes the sound of my voice.'

Lie down.

-Good.

-Come by.

-Away.

Yes.

'Maybe I'm beginning to get the hang of this.'

Away.

Yes!

'But sheep are not my challenge.

'Time to try out my skills on a different flock.

'I can't duck out now.'

Away.

Oh, no. They've already split up.

Lie down. Lie down.

Yes, Max. Lie down.

Come by. Oh...!

No, away.

No!

Lie down.

Hey, guys.

I'm in the way.

No, guys!

Yes! One!

SHE LAUGHS

We've got one duck in the pen.

Now we've got to get all the others. Don't we, Max?

Max? Lie down! Oi!

No, no, no!

SHE LAUGHS

I could cry!

Yes, Max...

Yes...!

Please get in. Please get in.

Yes, yes, yes...

Yes!

I think after that, the Blue Peter team can pretty much throw anything

at me and I'll take it in my stride,

like water off a duck's back.

OK, that's enough of the poor duck jokes,

I'm going to leave those to Barney.

Now, take two very excited Blue Peter boys

and one high-octane motorsport, and what do you get?

Barney, Radzi and loads of extreme speed.

Welcome to the world of hovercraft racing.

180 horsepower, 90mph...

and no brakes.

Hovercraft racing is not for the faint-hearted.

Guys, we'll have to go again on that one.

-You said NO brakes.

-Yeah. No brakes.

Barney, no brakes?

Hovercrafts aren't just difficult to stop, but also to drive.

The big powerful fan blows air underneath the craft

to lift it off the ground.

So, helping us to stay in control is this man,

F2 racer Marc Bradley-Upton.

Hi, Marc. Nice to meet you.

-Morning, guys.

-Hey.

-How are you?

Really good. I'm very excited. How about you, Radz?

I'm very... These look incredible.

Where do we start to even learn?

OK. Well, the first thing I want to show you is what CAN go wrong

if you drop the throttle on a corner.

You can go up to that under 10mph.

At that point, you will get thrown out of the hovercraft.

-So, lesson one, we could fall out of it. OK, good.

-OK.

Lesson two: I'll show you how to steer it.

Your handlebars, which push those little bits of rudder at the back.

So, steering then.

If you want to turn left, handlebars back towards your tummy,

weight to your left knee, and when you're in the corner,

you accelerate.

Shall we get in 'em?

-Let's get in them.

-All right.

'It was time to put our training to the test,

'and I was starting to get the hang of it. Unlike someone else.

'Slow and steady wins the race, Barney.

'Yeah - you're meant to go in between the flags, Radz, not over them.

'Yeah, yeah. I'm just warming up.

'We've kind of mastered land, so now let's try water.

'And I love it.

'And as you can see, Radzi...'

Here we go, here we go, here we go...!

'..he loves it too.'

Go, go, go, go, go! Yeah!

So that's it. Practice over.

Now we've got to race these things

and the only way we can is by doing a driving test.

But not only that, we actually have to PASS that test in order to race.

But who's going to go first?

BOTH: You're going first.

BOTH: I'm not going first.

This could take a while.

But we didn't have a while,

because it was time to meet Lee Willers, our examiner.

Let the test begin.

-Nervous about this test?

-Yes.

I'm very nervous about the test.

All right, I'm going to ask a couple of questions.

First of all, how would you stop that engine?

-So, you can pull the choke...

-Yeah.

Or you could pull out the leads which would take the spark out the plugs.

-Yeah. Right, flags. Red flag, what does that mean?

-Red flag -

stop when safe to do so.

A waved yellow flag?

A waved yellow flag means that a craft in front of you has

broken down or has some kind of failure, and is in your path.

So, you're going to prepare to start the engine.

-I genuinely feel nervous.

-Yeah, lose the nerves.

'Now for the practical part of our driving tests.

'Time to start our engines.

'Yeah, whenever you're ready, Radzi.

'Like this!

'Yeah, yeah. I've got this.

'The course involves us going in and out of flags,

'a 360-degree turn,

'successfully driving on and off the water,

'then ending exactly where we started.

'But have we passed?'

-Your entry to the water was a little bit too quick.

-'Oh, dear.'

You just stayed in that lean a little bit too long, OK?

'This isn't looking good.'

-No problem. Passed.

-Yes! Get in!

Thank you very much, that's brilliant news. Thank you.

-I've passed?

-Yes.

Yes!

Get in!

They're kitted out and ready to go. Let's meet our racers.

In red, number 157, it's Radzi.

In blue, number 156, Mr Barney Harwood.

Let's do this.

The race will last for ten minutes.

Whoever completes the most laps in this time wins.

'And we're off.

'It's a slow start for Radzi and I take an early lead.'

Just get your confidence, Radzi.

'We've both made it safely round corner one,

'and before we knew it, lap one was over.

'But on lap two, I'm still in the lead.

'Anything can happen, Barney.

'And it did, on lap three.'

MUSIC: "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Barney Harwood has crashed!

Barney, if you can hear me, mate, I do hope you're all right, buddy.

'But thanks as well, because I'm now in the lead.'

My engine just died.

I didn't do anything.

Yeah, that's more like it! Hold it, don't lose it. Oh...

Go, go, go. Yeah!

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Whoo! We got away with it.

'Keep on making those mistakes, Radzi, I'm not far behind.'

Here we go, concentrate now, please, Radzi.

Uh-oh.

Oh, Radzi's down! Radzi's down.

I just took a wooden post out.

I do apologise.

'I've lost track of the laps, I've had a couple of bumps,

'but I know I'm ahead

'and it's on the last corner and the home straight.

'Winner! Better luck next time, Barns.

'Yeah, whatever.

'That was fun.'

Radzi, well worthy, mate. Congratulations.

-Thank you.

-What a great day.

Blue Peter is all about getting involved and trying something new,

and this summer 2014 we've set the bar even higher.

We want you to inspire your friends to get involved in sports,

and if you do, you might just get your hands on one of these.

-COMMENTATOR:

-The gold medal is Great Britain's.

What a wonderful moment for Great Britain and the 18-year-old.

Great Britain have won the gold medal.

Hi, I'm Heather Stanning.

Great Britain, into the record book...

I was inspired to get involved in sport

probably through my PE teachers at school.

My proudest sporting achievement to date has to be

of course my Olympic gold medal.

To earn your Blue Peter Sport Badge, get involved

and inspire a friend to take up a sport that you love.

I'm Jenny Jones,

an Olympic bronze medallist

in slopestyle snowboard.

The people that inspired me to get into snowboarding were

my brothers, initially with surfing and then we moved on to snowboarding.

Jenny Jones, doing it for Great Britain...

Write in and let us know how you've inspired your family and friends

in participating in sports.

I'm Nile Wilson,

I'm an artistic gymnast.

Doing gymnastics has changed my life.

My proudest achievement is winning five gold medals

at the 2014 Junior European Championships.

Hi, I'm Keri-Anne Payne, Olympic silver medallist

and double world champion, the 10K open water.

Keri-Anne is really battling. And Keri-Anne's coming back at her...

My inspiration for swimming was Stephen Parry who won a bronze medal

in the 200 butterfly in the Athens Olympics.

He really inspired me to know that I can achieve my dreams

if I work really, really hard.

And Keri-Anne is going to take silver...

I'm Rebekah Tiler,

I'm a weightlifter.

My proudest achievement is being European weightlifting champion.

Rebekah Tiler!

My family and friends inspired me to take up weightlifting.

They said I'm really talented and should join a local club, and I did.

Hi, my name is Libby Clegg and this

is my guide runner Mikail Huggins.

But here comes Libby Clegg. There's a medal on offer for Great Britain.

For me, being involved in sport

has completely changed my life.

I feel much more confidence and more independence.

So a wonderful silver-lined moment for Libby Clegg...

Get involved, inspire a friend

and you could win a Blue Peter Sport Badge.

Remember, the new-look Sport Badge is limited edition this summer,

so get your application forms in quicker than a Lewis Hamilton

qualifying lap. Plus, you never know where it might take you.

And I'm proof of that.

I'm not just in Switzerland because of the lovely mountain views,

and this is not the first time I've been here in the last few months.

Oh, no.

I've been training for an epic,

icy and downright dangerous mountain marathon.

That was horrendous.

What am I doing?

Every two years, there is a race in the Swiss Alps

that's so mentally and physically demanding

people call it the toughest team event in the world.

And my challenge is to take on that race.

To do that, I'm following a gruelling training regime.

Go, go, go!

Learning the skills I need to ski down

and uphill for 17 hours straight.

Keep pushing!

This is so scary.

And with just six months of preparation,

attempting to become an extreme endurance athlete.

This is not going to be easy.

But I'm not the only one.

Radzi's been in Switzerland too, as part of his high-climbing challenge.

The final part of his mission was to scale

the world's highest climbing wall.

You've got some mega-exciting Blue Peter challenges coming your way.

Here's an exclusive look.

I know I've got something ahead of me.

I know it's going to be spectacular,

it's a Blue Peter challenge -

they wouldn't have trained me for 16 weeks

if it wasn't going to be spectacular.

I've got to really think about my own safety

and if I make a mistake now,

I could get hurt.

I don't know if I can do this.

How exposed does this make you feel?

You're going to feel really small and insignificant.

It's definitely going to be the hardest thing you'll have ever done.

That was so frustrating, I felt so close.

You did it.

Now, you have to wait just a tiny bit longer to find out how Radzi

and I got on, but trust me, it's worth it.

Now, something else that Switzerland is famous for

is these beautiful St Bernard dogs.

Now, these guys are only two months old, but the adults used to be used

in the Swiss Alps right here for mountain rescue.

The first St Bernards were trained more than 300 years ago,

to save lives on treacherous mountain passes.

The most famous St Bernard dog was called Barry, and in the 14 years

he spent on the mountains, he rescued more than 40 people.

St Bernards are no longer used for alpine rescue.

These days you're more likely to be picked up in a helicopter.

But they are still the national dog of Switzerland, and I can see why -

cos they are absolutely adorable.

A little bit nearer to home is a close

relative of the St Bernard keeping the rescue tradition alive,

as Radzi found out when he met some pretty extreme animals.

If you got into trouble at the beach

then you'd hope that you'd get rescued.

But you probably weren't expecting that help

to come in the form of a dog.

Meet Ellie.

She's from Newfound Friends,

a charity that trains Newfoundland dogs to help rescue people at sea.

The Newfoundland breed originates from, you guessed it,

Newfoundland in Canada.

Ellie, what is it about Newfoundlands that makes them

such good rescue dogs?

They've got really big webbed feet, which helps them

swim through water,

a thick double coat,

which helps keep them warm,

and they're amazingly strong.

How much do they weigh?

They can weigh up to 13 stone.

I'm 11 stone. So that's a big dog.

How do they train to become rescue dogs?

We train them from a young age and get them used to the water -

swimming, retrieving, holding things in their mouths.

Eventually they'll build up to jumping off the boat

into the water, to rescue someone.

So in real life they jump off a boat to actually rescue a casualty.

Yes, they'll always jump with someone,

so with a trained lifeguard,

just because they can't talk to a casualty that's in the water,

and the lifeguard's there to do what the dog can't, basically.

While these dogs have impressive power that makes them

ideal to rescue people, they do need some guidance.

Usually this comes in the form of a skilled

and experienced handler like Ellie,

but today they've agreed to

let me have a go with one of their Newfoundland dogs, Leandi.

Ellie, I've got the kit on. What am I going to be doing?

OK, so basically you need to run off the end of here and jump in.

The dog will follow you off the end of the pontoon, and it'll go to

the casualty, and once the casualty's got

hold of the harness on the dog, tell the dog to go to the boat.

Hopefully, Leandi goes to the boat.

Are there any guarantees she'll do that?

If you're calm and assertive, then...

yes. Hopefully.

She's never worked with you before, so this is all new to her

as well as new to you. She'll be looking for you for guidance.

So from the sounds of things, it's all on me.

Chloe is playing the role of a stranded swimmer,

and it's down to me and Leandi to rescue her.

Good girl.

Harness...

Boat.

Good girl, Leandi.

Leandi was absolutely perfect.

She followed me immediately off the pontoon,

she got to Chloe, I said boat and she went straight for the boat.

Well done, Leandi. Good girl.

Do you know what?

Before today I had no idea that in water, dogs really do save lives.

And if I were stranded for real, I'd be pretty relieved

if what I saw coming to save me was a Newfoundland dog.

Oh, how adorable was Tizz?

And how amazing was Leandi jumping into the water like that?

But check this out. Ready, Barry?

La patte.

Well done.

That's it for today's show, but make sure you're watching it

next week for some more Blue Peter best bits.

We'll be catching up with everyone's favourite Time Lord

in a Doctor Who special,

and our sonic device

competition winners see their designs brought to life

and meet the brand-new Doctor, Peter Capaldi.

Hello, how you doing?

Thank you very much for your designs, they're great.

Do more, keep drawing, keep working. Keep being creative.

Say bye, Barry. We'll see you then. Bye.