Britain's Most Spectacular Backyard Builds

All over the country, inventors are building the unimaginable.

Wheee-ooooo!

It's alive!

Yee-hah!

Creating the magical, the wonderful and the quite ingenious.

They're doing it at home...

in their garden sheds...

hidden from view.

Getting excited? Hurray!

Catastrophe!

Ambitious feats of engineering with real complexity and individuality.

WHOOPING

We've scoured the country for the very best inventors.

And now, three teams...

This is actually working.

That is fantastic.

HE WHINNIES

..with just ten weeks, go into battle.

Oh, God.

HORN PARPS

..in the search for Britain's Most Spectacular Backyard Builds.

We are a nation of brilliantly bonkers builders

and we've decided to put that technical wizardry to the test.

We challenged three of the very best

to create something truly spectacular.

They've got just ten weeks

and two and a half grand to build their creations.

Before we choose our favourite.

A true amateur who can apply challenging engineering principles,

but with a flash of originality.

And the clock is ticking.

My first port of call is the Isle of Wight.

Who doesn't have happy childhood memories of a funfair?

I'm about to meet a husband and wife team

who want to bring home all the magic

and the enchantment of the funfair to their very own back garden.

Meet retail manager Nick and his wife Carolyn,

who works for the emergency services.

We really enjoy building things and doing things

and just being a little bit creative.

-It's like Bonfire Night.

-Yeah.

It's great fun when we're in the thick of a project. We really pull together.

We haven't even got a spot to put the wine down.

-Maybe I should design you a garage wine holder.

-I've got one.

It's attached to my body.

It's about give and take. I give, she takes.

LAUGHTER

Their grand plan is to construct a carousel,

but with an extra special function -

it dispenses sweets as you ride.

HORSE WHINNIES And it's for one very important client,

their granddaughter, India.

Initially, I gave a little bit of paper to India, my granddaughter,

and I said, "I want you to draw what you would like me to invent."

And she drew some candy canes and a little load of cogs and she said,

"There you go, I want a sweet-making machine."

And I thought, what a good idea!

DRILL BUZZES

When I grow up I really want to be an inventor like Grandpa.

So have this couple got the pedigree to pull off a six-year-old's dream?

Hopefully, if their past projects are anything to go by.

Wow.

You do like to travel in style. Very nice.

Nick and Carolyn spent four years building their full-scale

replica of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

She's a beau... DEEP VOICE: She's a beauty!

I knew that Carolyn loved the film,

and then one morning she said to me could I build her the car?

This is our little picnic hamper.

-Oh, look!

-Roulette table.

-Wow.

It's really great.

Is he my Dick Van Dyke? I've got to say yes, haven't I?

LAUGHTER

HORN PARPS

There's a lovely breeze coming through. Is that the air con?

That's what it is!

These two don't do things by halves.

In 2008, Nick and Carolyn drove Chitty all the way to Australia.

We covered 15,000 miles, went through 17 different countries.

-It was...

-It was barking mad.

Their building prowess doesn't stop here.

They've customised a lawnmower into a mini Chitty for their granddaughter

and even turned a mobility scooter into a pint-sized campervan.

But they've built nothing on the scale of a working carousel.

This is the workshop.

'Their ten weeks have started

'and they've already put together the revolving base.'

Wow. Gosh.

'..with wheels from an old mobility scooter.'

It's huge!

-Yeah.

-It needs to be.

'And it's ready to be put to the test.'

If it doesn't go to plan, do we need to duck?

Are you the sort to start hurling spanners around?

I'd go and have a cup of tea and think about it.

Now, if this works...

Oh!

Hey, that goes round!

Wow, it's amazing. OK, so assume the position if we're on horses.

-LAUGHTER

-Oh, my God!

-OK, that goes.

-Yeah!

-Even with our delicate weight on there.

-Yeah.

The carousel will be pedal powered by four horses perched

on old bicycle wheels.

The challenge will be what drives the sweet-dispenser.

They'll be using six gear sets and five metres of chains

to transmit power from the rotating base to the sweet machine.

But they'll need the right balance between torque and shaft speed.

It's a complex build

and one that's got to impress a very strong-minded six-year-old...

India.

Who's going to be first to ride on this?

-Me!

-Oh, no, really?

I'm going to jump on my horse and press a button and it'll go...

sweets, sweets, sweets, sweets, sweets!

And I'm so excited and candy canes are so yummy, I will eat them all.

I'm really excited about this build. It's really magical.

And they can do it, because I rode in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang today,

so they've got the skill.

What worries me is that they're building it for their six-year-old granddaughter, India.

I've got a six-year-old - they can be pretty hard to please.

So no pressure, then.

-It's a big job.

-Yep.

-But they can do it, can't they?

-Yeah, yeah.

While Sara has got her hands full on the Isle of Wight...

..I'm heading to the heart of Sussex n search of our next build.

There's a whole tradition of British invention that's actually

incredibly perverse.

One that celebrates ludicrous complexity to achieve something

that's actually quite simple.

It's invention for invention's sake.

A philosophy that our next team swear by.

"In my workshop 100yds down garden."

That sounds intriguing.

This is... the domain of an inventor, I think.

Look at that! It's amazing!

This is retired airline pilot Pete and his friend Merv,

a telecommunications manager.

They were introduced four years ago by friends who saw a similar spark.

Wheeee-ooooo!

We really like things that are perpetually useless.

Why don't we connect the jiggling mechanism up?

This is going up and down.

I remember one of the contraptions we spent the whole day trying

to get a squelching noise.

TINNY RATTLING

We egg each other on.

How do you get the water in the cup?

-I haven't worked that out yet.

-What?!

And we both have lovely wives who push both of us.

Well, when Merv and Pete are together,

it's like they talk a completely different language.

There will be an actuator that will move this and we'll put a Servo inside.

So what kind of microprocessor are you going to use to do this?

They are a match made in heaven and long may it last.

-How many weeks have we got to do this?

-THEY CHUCKLE

Don't worry about it.

BELL DINGS

-Hi, Piers!

-Hello, how are you doing?

-Come in, come in.

-Good to meet you.

They invent in Pete's workshop,

built to accommodate his passion for making things.

-This is an amazing place in here.

-Yeah, it's our playground.

-Look at this, this is beautiful!

-It's a piece of kinetic sculpture.

-It does absolutely nothing.

-I want to have a go NOW.

-Yeah, right, OK.

Climb aboard.

So I'm going to go. Look at this! Wow.

-Pedal like mad.

-It's amazing!

WHIRRING

And just keep going, Piers.

We'll all go off for a cup of coffee and you keep pedalling.

-Amazing.

-That's your exercise for the day.

So you're not just bonkers inventors, you're also artists.

-Because this is such a beautiful thing.

-Yeah.

'So I'm expecting big things from these two.

-'And they're not disappointing.'

-CROWING

With an ambitious plan to create an automated

Sunday breakfast maker for the most important people in their lives -

their wives, Andrea and Sandra.

-They both deserve Sunday morning off.

-Yeah.

So we thought we'd build a Sunday morning breakfast machine.

-Good!

-SHE CHUCKLES

Perfect Sunday breakfast - I can't wait. I so look forward to it.

This is our Sunday breakfast - they've got to get it right.

No two ways about it.

-The main aim is to make them laugh while having a good breakfast.

-Yeah.

And the fact that we like an excuse to build a contraption

has got absolutely nothing to do with it.

Central to the elaborate design are three key features -

a tower crane will collect the egg from a hen and cook it.

A mechanised wafting arm will toast the bread

and the tea and coffee jiggler will ensure the correct strength.

It's a combination of mechanical components and electronic control

systems to create a carefully choreographed set of events.

And how could I forget the newspaper deliverer?

Anything else that we can think of along the way.

I think we got enough, actually, to be quite honest, Peter.

-Yes, so do I.

-Can we take some stuff off of it?

-No!

To kick-start their build,

Pete and Merv have instructed a prototype out of Meccano.

That is super ambitious, just to design a machine that does all that.

Yeah, it is a little bit ambitious,

-I have to say.

-It's more ambitious than we initially thought.

-Yeah.

We like to have motion, sound and light,

so I build in these motors and then Merv controls them with electronics.

-The easy bit, Peter thinks.

-Yeah, the easy bit.

-When things are happening, there will be the odd light flashing and things, won't there?

-Yeah.

-Fine.

-Um...

-There will now!

-Yes!

I'll go along with Peter and his flashing lights and then do it MY way.

Yes!

To keep the element of surprise,

Sandra and Andrea have been banned from the workshop for the next ten weeks.

Sounds like the pressure is on, because you really do need to impress your wives here, don't you?

Being a good husband is all about scoring bonus points.

-And it takes a long time to get them. You can lose them so quick.

-Very rapidly, yes.

So if this works as I'm hoping it will do,

we'll get a mega amount of Brownie points.

It was amazing to see Pete and Merv

and just look at the incredible things that they've made.

Their enthusiasm is so infectious.

Good luck, both of you, and...

can't wait.

And I think they will build something amazing,

but whether it will work or not, at this stage I'm not so sure.

They need this machine not just to give their wives breakfast,

it needs to give them the best breakfast in the most beautiful

and poetic way imaginable.

Northumberland, north-east England, home to our final challenger.

I'm on my way to meet a science-fiction fan

who's about to attempt to fulfil a boyhood dream

to build his very own robot.

And now, like Dr Frankenstein, is about to bring it alive.

This is Stewart.

Artistic blacksmith.

Sci-fi geek...

..husband and one-of-a-kind dad.

STEWART GRUNTS

HE LAUGHS

At heart, think, I'm just still a big kid

and I'm still excited by all the things that excite my children.

-Nnn-nnn-nnnnhhh!

-Aaaargh!

I love to let my imagination have some fun and to be able to realise

and make in real life the things that I've imagined in my head.

So, for his challenge,

sci-fi fan Stewart is planning to build a robot, a very large robot.

It's going to be terrific.

-But we will be the only people that's got one.

-Yeah!

This is a bit of a dream come true because I've had this idea in my head for a long, long time.

It's without doubt the most challenging build I've ever attempted.

-I've got one like that for icing cakes.

-That's exactly... That's it!

He is a bit like a Womble.

He takes ordinary things like a dustbin,

and makes them into something that's useful.

This might come in handy one day. It's got a nice dial on it.

This is going to be a big lamp.

My children's faith in me is about 97%.

Dad, we're counting on you, so you'd better do it.

My faith in me is 100%.

I mean that.

-Hello! Stewart?

-That's it, come on in.

It's a big challenge, so I want a quick rummage

through his garage to see what he's made before.

-Wow. Is that the tank?

-Yeah, that's it.

Stewart's converted a 15 horsepower ride-on mower

into a tank for his two sons.

I've driven it and it very fun to drive.

It's a nice bit of give when you jump on it! STEWART CHUCKLES

-The springs all come from old trampolines.

-It's proper bouncy.

It's proper bouncy.

LAUGHTER

-Oh, my gosh.

-This is my jet pack.

It's so cool.

This is the dream. Could you hold a child? Like, vrrroomm!

Have a nice day at school, kids!

So, on to the robot Stewart plans to build.

Moving arms with a colossal metal claw and weaponised

foam dart artillery.

It's a beast.

This build will be all about what's known as degrees of freedom -

the number of joints and how they're linked together will provide

an increasing variety of movements.

And let's not forget how it's all powered.

Too big to build a home, it's off to Stewart's workshop to see

how far he's got with just seven weeks to go.

Here we are, then! The forge.

-Wow.

-Yeah, this is where all the magic goes on.

-Where's the robot?

Right, it's...

It's more of a robot of the mind for the moment, but I have certain

pieces of it, and a big bit of it is right at your feet.

Oh, OK.

Um...

My plans are...loose at best.

At worst, non-existent.

If I'm really honest, I'm a little bit alarmed with the...

We're at week three and this is how far we've got.

-Can you do this build, Stewart?

-Yeah.

Really?

-HIGH VOICE:

-It's going to be fine, Sara!

Had such a laugh with Stewart.

He's obviously got the skill to do this robot.

He's definitely got the passion.

But given that we're in week three already,

and there's not really much of...

Well, there's NO robot built, there's just some shoulders.

So has he got enough time??

That's my main concern. I guess we'll see.

Three teams are underway,

attempting to breathe life into three unique creations.

But they need not fear, inspiration is at hand.

Our teams may be at the beginning of their builds,

but other magnificent makers have gone before them,

creating the daft, the daring and the downright absurd.

Take Matt McEwan from Cornwall, and his shopping trolley.

One shopping trolley, one jet engine,

one go-kart chassis

and four go-kart wheels.

It does 0-60 in 12 seconds.

Eight gallons per mile.

That is ridiculous.

Matt found the trolley in a ditch and did what any sensible person

would do - turned it into a jet propelled rocket.

The first time and drove it, I didn't know what to expect.

We couldn't steer it at all over 30mph.

You just had to sort of hold on and hope for the best.

There is no point at all other than the fact that it's

brilliant fun to ride.

Matt's custom-built trolley runs off a starter engine

from a 1950s Buccaneer.

This is where the action is.

Air sucked in at the front is compressed,

but as it's heated by the fuel, it rapidly expands and is expelled

out the back at huge velocity, creating the propulsive thrust.

If you put your hand there

when the engine's running, it will blow your hand off.

I have the world record for the fastest shopping trolley.

It's 70mph.

But Matt wants to go faster.

I am going to do 100mph.

As long as it's not near the shops.

I hate shopping.

I probably would go shopping if I was allowed to take

my shopping trolley, but they won't let me in the supermarket with it.

And what's next for this speed freak?

Yes, that is another jet engine, and it's in the back of a hearse.

It should do about 200mph when it's finished.

Dead Quick, I've called this.

Seven weeks to go and Merv and Pete

are tackling one of the most crucial part of their build -

the crane that will lift the boiled egg.

I'll have that going in half an hour.

-Well, I'm not ready for that yet.

-Well, get on, then! Come on!

-I try not to think about the time we've got to do it.

-So do I.

Because if I think about the time, my heart starts to pump

and I get worried.

Merv is using microprocessors to control 13 moving sections,

all needing individual coding.

But first, the mechanical department needs to build the parts.

It's going back to being 15 years old.

It's just that life takes over

and playing with toys goes out the window, I'm afraid.

Then when you retire, you can go back to playing again.

Which is exactly what I'm doing.

The aluminium crane is powered by three stepper motors,

controlling two gears and the trolley along the shaft.

This is a big boy's dream. To build contraptions like this

is absolutely wonderful.

Mounted on the crane will be a two-string pulley system to

manoeuvre the egg into position.

Right, whoopee.

I look at that and actually find it hard to...I've actually built it.

HE LAUGHS

But the real test will be the system integration,

getting Merv's electronics talking to Pete's mechanics

To fully automate the breakfast maker.

Up in Northumberland, Stewart's giant robot is finally getting underway.

-Oh, dudes!

-Hiya!

All right, babies?

With a little help from son Laurie and niece Florence.

That's it.

First step, creating a strong enough frame to support

the colossal 65kg shoulders of the robot.

-I think that is the first part of the frame.

-Hurray!

Weapon of choice, metal - 25mm steel bars, to be precise.

The controls for it will be here in the arm somewhere.

Next up, mounting the frame onto a 40cm wheel hub

with six steel bolts, allowing the robot

to spin, giving it its first degree of freedom.

-Oh, that is going to be really cool.

-This is actually working.

'Easy work for a blacksmith,

'but bringing it to life is going to be far harder.'

Actually making the robotics of it,

making an arm move exactly how far you want it and back again, those

are the things that are starting to give me a bit of a headache now.

And there's still a lot more head-scratching to go on.

At Carousel HQ, work's begun on the four horses.

Each one is made from seven individual pieces of ply,

-giving them 28 to cut out in total.

-That's two.

-And then you've got three...

-You've got three middle ones.

Neigh!

The crude blocks are then carefully moulded into shape...

This is all right, isn't it? I'm really pleased with him.

-It's great.

-..ready to be mounted on old bicycle wheels.

My plan, and it is a plan in my head,

is that that sticks on the turntable and then the horse sits on top.

And one of the dilemmas -

actually it's starting to look quite apparent now - is how big it is.

Now, that is worryingly...

massive.

I mean, it would be OK to plonk a kid on top

but they're never going to pedal that.

It might be old-fashioned mechanics

but fundamental to Nick's design

is using levers - in this case pedals -

to transfer power from one moving part to another.

Hmm.

Without the ability to generate that power,

the horses will be going nowhere.

When you get the power ratios right,

though, the effects can be quite awesome.

Take Paul Mason from Northumberland and his giant trebuchet.

This is my version of a medieval trebuchet.

It's quite a small one by medieval standards

but big enough for me I think.

Standing six metres high and weighing over a tonne and a half,

the trebuchet exploits the principle of levers to generate its power.

The aim, lobbing things as far as possible.

What we've got is a big weight box here that's full of steel

and scrap iron.

Sitting on a short arm, the huge weight acts

as a counterbalance to the small projectile on the long throwing arm.

The idea is, the box drops, the arm goes up, the sling goes out

and away it goes and knocks down your castle.

Made from 80 scrap wooden pallets, it took Paul six months to build.

I'm totally in awe of the guys that built these things in medieval

times with hand tools. How did they do it? I don't know.

Paul didn't build it for war but a music festival.

I wanted it to be the only music festival up in the north-east,

perhaps in the country, that's got a working medieval siege machine.

Five, four, three, two, one.

CHEERING

CHEERING

It was pretty good, I'm quite pleased.

Back on the Isle of Wight,

Nick and Caroline have finally worked out a way to lower

the horses closer to the pedals...

What about if you drilled up into the bottom of the horse?

..by gouging into that lovingly carved wood.

By the time we've finished this, we'll have a shell.

I was going to say, we'll have no horse left.

A shame but needs must.

-Put the little paw in first. How's that?

-That's it.

That actually looks better over the wheel, doesn't it?

Now the pedals can be reached,

they can be used as levers to power the entire carousel.

That is easy, that is really easy.

THEY CHUCKLE

What makes this really tough is working full-time

and then coming into the garage at six o'clock,

seven o'clock at night and working on until midnight every night.

It is quite hard.

Really enjoyable, absolutely loving it

but you've still got to sleep and eat...

apparently!

Yee-ha!

Grabbing every hour they can, the horses and even a zebra are painted,

saddle stitched and work started on the carousel facades.

We've got loads of painting to do, so we've had to enrol India

and that's great, so we're cracking through some of the panels.

Actually, I'm in charge.

Now attention can turn to the most important part, the sweet dispenser.

It will be so disappointing if, on the day, we're not ready

and India walks in and...

"Oh..."

So, with a six-year-old's hopes at stake,

I've come along to see if this crucial element will work.

Look at this! This is incredible. It's all so intricate.

-All of this to get a few sweets. I mean, it's amazing.

-It is bonkers.

It would be a lot easier to go

and buy a bag of sweets up the road but...

It would be a lot easier but then it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?

-No!

-Caroline's off to finish saddling up the horses, leaving Nick

and me to get to grips with the mechanics of the sweet machine.

Tell me what's driving all of this.

We're going to have this on the bottom,

on the other end I'm going to have a wheel that's on the base...

and then connected the two cogs with a chain, so, as it goes

round, then it actually makes the whole mechanism go round.

Nick's using six sets of gears to drive the sweet machine.

Each gear has its own distinct ratio through its diameter

and number of teeth.

The combined gear ratios control the speed

and torque of the rotating parts. Get the balance right,

and you have a sweet machine spinning at a steady pace.

Too fast and centrifugal force will send

sweets flying everywhere - disastrous!

But this is India's big dream.

I mean, this is what she conceived of in her head, in a way.

-So it's got to work.

-Yes.

It has.

And I've spotted another potential pitfall.

So, of course, the first time that we do this

and India's riding the bicycle and all of your neighbours and

friends are watching, what we don't want to happen is, you know, that.

NICK LAUGHS

-You get...half the tube drops out.

-It works!

Actually, no, there's still some in there, look.

I think Nick should split the hopper into two chambers

so only a few sweets are released each time it opens.

There's a real dangerous reality that I'm going to have

-a floor full of sweets!

-There is.

But, actually, that's what's great about this,

that it's teetering on the edge of being completely bonkers

and actually not working and firing sweets off everywhere but,

actually, if you get it right, it's going to be brilliant.

I know I can deliver something

but I'm concerned that it might not be as good as I want it to be.

There's such a lot to get right at so many levels

and if one cog is out of alignment, it won't work.

How it's going to happen and how everything is going to come

together to make that happen, I'm not yet sure.

In Sussex,

the Sunday-morning breakfast-maker is starting to take shape.

-Everything's going wonderfully, isn't it?

-Yeah, at the moment.

Today, Pete and Merv are bringing the mechanics

and electronics together for the very first time.

Now, in theory, they should be able to get the crane moving on its own.

You reckon your department's going to work, do you?

-Yeah.

-Total faith in you.

-No, I don't, actually, but...

-What?

HE CHUCKLES

For each of the 13 moving parts,

Merv has had to write a series of complex codes

loaded onto microprocessors.

Drops egg into water. 43.

The coding will determine everything the crane does.

The velocity at which the trolley transports the egg to

the boiler, the time spent cooking and the trajectory of the egg

as it's hoisted out of the water and delivered to the table.

Precision is paramount to avoid catastrophe and the pressure

is on to get it right as their clients know exactly what they want.

The egg has to be runny.

I like a bit of hard yolk just round the edge of the yolk.

And I would, ideally, like the top of the egg to be cut for me.

-The toast, I like fingers.

-And a nice cup of tea, not too strong.

Oh, I am demanding, yeah, very fussy.

If it's delivered with a runny white

or a solid yellow, we'll be in trouble.

Before they get close to boiling an egg,

they need to get the egg moving up, down, and along the crane.

-Ready for it?

-Yeah, come on. I'm waiting.

Can I excite you? Nothing.

I'm really excited about that, Merv.

-Absolutely zilch.

-Right, OK.

Now, why is that? Don't you need to press the trigger button?

-Is there a trigger?

-No, there isn't on this one, no.

Oh, yes, there is. Of course there is!

MERV LAUGHS

-Right, where are we? There we go. Are you ready?

-Yeah, go on.

You going to get excited? Hooray!

-Have you pressed it?

-Yeah.

-Not very exciting!

No, not a lot happening, is there?

That's not good, I don't think it liked that.

Oh, this is a bit disconcerting.

-Have you forgotten to do something?

-No. Anything happen?

Absolutely zilch.

With two hungry wives still waiting for their breakfast

and five weeks to go, it's a setback they could do without.

What other fault can we possibly have?

Plugging it in, that's where it all fell apart.

I don't see it for what we've got so far, I just look at it

and think, "God, we've got a heck of a lot more to do."

We're both a bit worried about time. We've got, I think,

five weeks left but this has taken us five weeks to get to this point.

It sounds like Pete and Merv may need inspiring.

When it comes to taking the very simple

and completely overcomplicating it, this guy is the absolute nuts.

This is Rob Higgs from Cornwall.

And this is his Nutcracker.

It weighs about eight tonnes.

It's 35 feet high.

There's 2,000 parts.

It's greatest skill is cracking nuts.

A giant machine cracking a truly tiny nut.

Rob's nutcracker is so big it lives here, at the Eden Project.

It really works. It's a kind of sledgehammer-to-crack-a-nut thing.

If there's an ethos, then it's definitely our wasteful society

and all of that excessive mechanical contraptions for absolute nonsense.

It took Rob a year to build this super-sized structure

out of metal salvaged from old trawler boats,

rescued from beaches and scavenged from scrapyards.

This winds some gears which moves this one...

that then turns this one here,

which pulls down on that, which yanks this whole thing,

pulling on its...

That's just to scare people.

That brings a hammer round, about to drop onto a plate here.

The nut gets fired out the top of that dentist-bracket bit,

into that, that's a head lamp, and then that releases this

to then drop all the way down onto that.

Whoo!

200 turns later, here's a nut.

Four weeks to go in Northumberland, Stewart is

grappling with a way to make his robot arms actually move.

The learning curve is kind of this steep at the moment.

With a little bit more information,

we're trying to lower the curve of my learning.

In the spirit of his previous builds,

Stewart's constructing most of the robot from scrap he can find.

That's rather nice, I like that.

For the arms, he's decided to re-purpose old truck parts -

pressurised air bags - one for each shoulder and elbow joint,

giving four more degrees of freedom.

Look at that.

Powerful enough to inflate and lift a 15-tonne truck,

Stewart wants to use them like arm muscles.

As pressurised air is pumped in, they expand, propelling the arm up.

It's a simple pneumatic system but controlling the air pressure

will be critical to achieve the precise movements of the arm.

It's perfect! Yup, I think this is going to be very good.

Each pressurised air bag will be housed in a hinged metal frame

that can pivot as the bags expand and contract.

One end in there.

This has all got to fit onto the back here to push the arm up

when it opens and closes.

I don't know anybody who's actually tried doing this, so...

I'm it.

In fact, all the builds have been given a safety check

by our engineer, Alex, and he's raised alarm bells

about Stewart's plan.

Our safety engineer is really worried that the airbag system

that Stewart is proposing to use could be really dangerous.

Now, it's one thing to build an amazing robot but it's quite

another to put your life in danger.

Good to see you, this is Alex.

-Hi, Alex.

-Good to meet you.

I thought it would be good that Alex had a look at the airbags

just to see how they work, how they control all this,

and really whether they're safe.

OK, I appreciate that.

Alex is concerned that, as the airbags are scrap,

they could have the potential to explode.

Now, over time, rubber perishes,

so as soon as you start adding pressure to this,

we're going to start stretching the weak parts of the rubber.

-So what would happen if this went bang?

-It would be a big, big bang.

I just wouldn't want to be stood anywhere near one of these

-if they went bang.

-Well, that puts a different complexion on things.

It's all about stored energy.

Imagine a party balloon popping,

that's around one pound per square inch of pressure and would

certainly make you jump but amplify that by 150 times and that could be

the potential pressure inside one of these airbags when it blows.

To check if these ones are fit for purpose,

Alex needs to take a closer look.

Here you go. Whoops.

Quite exposing, isn't it?

I mean, having someone coming and checking something that is

still in the process of being made and worked out.

Yes, it does feel a little bit...

It makes me a little bit nervous.

What we need to do, really, is stretch the airbag out a little bit

so we can have a look underneath here at

what the quality of the rubber is like under there.

Oh, hang on. There we are, look,

if you look just up here you can see a tiny little split.

I see it, yeah. I can see that.

Yeah, so that's a thinning of the rubber there, that's a weak point.

I would not for a moment think about putting air in that.

If this was fine... You know,

what we're asking of it is very little compared to what it's

designed to do but, because we've immediately identified a weak

spot in the rubber, it's a no-no.

Right. OK.

That is a big disappointment that that's not going to work, isn't it?

Yeah, it is, this is also the most crucial piece of making this

whole arm work.

If that doesn't work, none of it works,

so I'm pretty gutted that this isn't going to go right now.

This is a big deal.

Just getting one component of this robot to work is problematic,

so it's that times 30 or 40 that's got to

happen in the next three weeks.

I think that Stewart's just going to have to work day and night

to get it finished in any shape or form.

-Good luck, Stewart.

-Thank you, Alex.

-See you soon.

-Bye-bye.

Right.

All builders must consider safety

when constructing their contraptions.

But that doesn't have to hold you back.

Retired airline pilot Mike Clark was so confident in his abilities,

he decided to build his own plane and take to the skies.

The top speed is 70mph, the wingspan is 25 feet.

Nought to 60...about half a field!

And here it goes.

A Fokker Eindecker German fighter plane from the First World War

taking off in 2016 from a back garden in West Sussex.

So what exactly goes in to keeping it up in the air?

I built this from aluminium tubing, mountain-bike brakes,

mountain-bike wheels and steel cable.

Easier said than done.

The trick to staying airborne is to balance the aerodynamic lift

against the weight of the plane.

You've got to be confident, otherwise I wouldn't be doing it.

Mike relies on a 50-horsepower engine

and his trusty Fokker has a flying range of 50 miles.

My grandfather was a pilot in the First World War,

so I think there must be some genetics in there somewhere.

So far, Mike's clocked up 150 hours without

so much as a bumpy landing but he does have one fear.

We seem to get a lot of buzzards.

They are massive birds and they don't get out of the way, so...

But on this flight, no buzzards and a safe landing.

Two weeks and counting until the big reveals.

It's the final push for our magnificent makers.

-Select a nice cup of tea...

-Thank you.

We've got that bit in.

We've added the jiggler in the middle. Light toast or burnt toast.

Well, it's still white.

Drop your end down.

Nick and Caroline have roped in an army of friends to construct

their carousel outside.

The truth is, I don't know if it's going to fit or not!

You need to get the top one right and then offer the bottom one up.

No, hang on...

I get really frustrated

if I can't achieve what I would like to achieve.

-Go on.

-DRILL WHIRS

There's a mountain of finishing touches to complete.

I've still got a lot of fissures to do round the top...

Three more bolts and washers.

..and I've got the sweet-making machine and we've got to...

Over in Northumberland, Stewart's had a breakthrough -

a new plan to get his robot arms moving without airbags.

I've been thinking about using a winch and a cable

because this wheel makes a perfect pulley.

That's the theory anyway.

It works.

One problem solved but it's left Stewart way behind schedule.

If anything goes wrong, it's going to get tough.

Everything's got to go absolutely right from here on in.

And on the breakfast-maker, Merv's computer software is now

sending electronic signals to the mechanics.

Here we go. We're off.

Why hasn't it come on?

-Oh, hold on a minute, I haven't plugged it in.

-Well, nearly!

THEY LAUGH

And they're finally ready to cook their first egg.

Oh, that's looking good.

-Steam.

-Steam? Crikey. Bubbling away like a good'un.

At this late stage, for it not to go how we would like it to go,

it would be very frustrating.

Come on, let's have you.

But it would be a hell of a lot easier to just take

both our wives out for a fantastic meal.

Oh, wonderful.

It wouldn't be the same.

Let's see if it's the perfect egg.

It's runny but it's still got a little bit of white in it there.

That's pretty well bang on!

Three brilliant builds hurtling towards the finish line.

That's it, a bit of brute force.

Ten weeks are up, the time for tinkering is over.

Oh, God.

They can do no more.

COCKEREL CROWS

-So we've got to choose our favourite.

-We do.

It's going to be hard, isn't it?

For me, it's just going to be what I find the most fantastic,

really, what just fires up my imagination.

I also want something to be really inventive

and clever in how it's engineered.

I want people to have really pushed themselves.

It's Sunday morning, D-Day for the breakfast-maker and Merv and Pete.

Our safety engineer's given it the once over and it's ready to go.

We are starving, waiting for our breakfast.

-Ten whole weeks!

-I know, we've lost weight - haven't we? - waiting.

I wish.

It's going to be bonkers and a bit crazy but, you know,

there's going to be a great breakfast hopefully.

I actually can't bear it, what of it all goes wrong, Piers?

If it doesn't work, we will both, without any doubt,

be extremely gutted.

-Here we go. You go first.

-Wow.

If the pressure wasn't high enough already,

they've piled in friends and family to witness the moment.

Oh, wow, hello.

-Wow! Look at this!

-Amazing, isn't it?

-It's gorgeous.

What a feast for the eyes.

Complete with a mini Merv and Pete.

An automatic tea-maker with the all-important jiggle function

for the teabag.

A paper ready to be fired onto the table.

A toast-maker and, of course, the egg, fresh from a "battery" hen

ready to be cooked soft or well-done at the flick of a switch.

All powered by 13 motors and eight microprocessors.

It looks incredible but does it work?

If this works,

I should have actually earned mega Brownie points, so it's got to work!

When Andrea walks into the kitchen and sees it, I want her to go,

"Wow!" That really is what it's all about.

This is amazing!

It really is, actually.

Your communal garden breakfast machine. I think you should have a seat.

-Darling, you have to make a selection.

-Toast. I'll have light.

-Egg.

-You like soft egg.

-Yes.

-Click it up. That's it.

-And I have tea.

-Here we go. You've only waited 40 years for this.

-A long time.

Here go. Oh!

There's your newspaper.

-Share that with Sandra and you can read the newspaper.

-There we go.

And Sandra is just going to wait for her breakfast?

Unfortunately, she's got to wait

cos we can only do one at a time, unfortunately, yeah.

-MACHINE:

-Please insert your bread into the toaster, m'lady.

Is that toast going to get toasted on both sides?

Yes, it flips over.

Where's the tea?

In five minutes, your tea will be delivered.

-How do you like your tea, normally, Andrea?

-Weak.

-Have you got it on weak setting?

-Yeah, that's weak. Don't worry.

Look at that, a perfect jiggle.

That is clever!

-Oh, look, look, look at this!

-That is amazing.

-Look at that.

That really is wonderful.

-MACHINE:

-Nicely jiggled cuppa for you, m'lady.

-There we are.

-Lovely.

Actually, it's not quite hot enough.

Oh, no!

-Look, look! The egg going down.

-Clever.

-Look at that!

-Yeah!

-Here it comes.

-Beautiful.

Oh, oh!

'Your toast, m'lady.'

Gosh!

I've never watched an egg boil so intensely before.

Here we go. Here we go.

-Do I have to catch it?

-No, no, no, no. Don't worry.

It will be delivered straight to your eggcup, darling.

'Now this will have to be perfect.'

-MACHINE:

-Your egg, just as you like it, my lady.

LAUGHTER

This is the most stressful thing of the lot,

watching you take the top of the egg off.

-Look at that.

-Very good.

-Not bad.

-Is it runny, though?

-Yeah, it's... It's, well, perfect.

That's the works. That's the works.

-Lovely.

-Pretty good.

-It looks delicious.

-It is.

You're not having any.

'A triumph, but they can't relax just yet.'

Sandra, you've waited ten weeks and 15 minutes for your breakfast.

-You must be ready for it now.

-Yeah, I'm more than ready.

OK, here we go.

It's a soft egg, light toast and coffee for Sandra.

-Oh, tea and coffee!

-Oh, hang on, hang on, hang on...

Both teabags in - that's toffee, not coffee.

-Actually, it's quite nice.

-CHEERING

-It's all on the egg, isn't it?

-It is. Here it comes.

-Here it comes.

-Here we go.

-MACHINE:

-Your egg, just as you like it, my lady.

Oh, it's looking good.

-Yes.

-CHEERING

A runny egg - that is brilliant.

-Look at that. Perfect.

-Absolutely brilliant.

So, the moment of reckoning -

how many brownie points have these guys are earned?

-Mega. Mega brownie points.

-CHEERING

Fantastic.

'So, perhaps not the perfect drinks, and a wait for feast number two,

'but quite possibly the maddest and most entertaining breakfast ever.'

The sense of relief is overwhelming. I'm completely overwhelmed.

-I can't believe that we've actually done it.

-No.

One more thing - we've go to clear up the table.

-Oh, right.

-So, OK, Andrea, if you lift the red button...

-Oh, here we go. Yeah.

-Wahey!

Didn't expect that.

-TEACUP CRASHES

-Wahey!

-Wahey!

Oh, my gosh!

CHEERING

I thought it was brilliant.

They did a bloody good job.

SHEEP BLEAT

'Next stop, Northumberland. Has Stewart finished his robot?'

What are we going to do if we get there

and it's just still a pile of scrap on the floor?

My dad's put so much work into it

and I really hope it's going to work.

I want them to think that they've got the best dad.

It'll probably never be true but I'd like them to think that it is.

The last time I was here, the engineer told him

to stop what he was doing immediately,

and he had to completely rethink what he was doing...

-Fingers crossed it's going to be finished.

-Fingers crossed, yeah.

'The moment of reckoning has arrived.

'Friends and family are waiting.

'It's been checked by our safety engineer.

'All we need now is Stewart.'

-Hi.

-Hi, guys.

-Hello. Hi.

-How are you doing?

So, I'm presuming this is the robot, but where's Stewart?

I don't know. He could be in there.

Stewart, are you in there?

I certainly am.

He sounds very calm.

-Do you want to see this robot, then? ALL:

-Yeah!

OK, here we go.

-ALL:

-Five, four, three, two, one...

CHEERING

It's amazing.

ROBOT WHIRS

-ALL:

-Whoa.

That is a serious bit of kit.

-What do you think of that?

-Wow.

-That is totally amazing.

'Yes, Stewart's robot is fully operational,

'with a claw arm able to lift or crush objects...

'..double-barrelled guns that can fire 100 foam darts

'in under 13 seconds...

'..a 100-degree swivel...

'..and two slightly scary eyes.'

Thank you very much.

It's brilliant. You've done so well.

It looks so inventive and ingenious.

Seriously, how many bits of machinery have you got in here?

Oh, there's all kinds of bits. There's an axle from a van.

There's a towel dispenser - a paper-towel dispenser in his head.

-It is. Look at that.

-We've got tractor headlights...

Although lots of it is, sort of, off-the-shelf that you've adapted.

I mean, all of this...

the arms are welded up beautifully out of separate components,

and there's real artistry, here.

Stewart, a huge congratulations. You did it.

-Yeah, well done.

-Thank you.

-I feel like we need to test it, Piers.

-Yeah. Yeah.

I think we should do something really hard and delicate

that's almost impossible to pick up with something as big as that -

something like an egg.

A raw egg. What do you think?

-Yeah!

-Yeah!

OK, I'll give it a shot.

-There we are.

-Is that OK?

-That looks good.

-Look at that - perfect.

Right, let's see if we can pick this thing up.

-Wahey.

-Oh.

-Off you go. We are close to the egg.

-Oh, wow.

-Nearly smashed it, there.

Oh, I can't watch.

Oh, yes.

-Oh...

-Look at that.

-Ugh...

-Steady.

-Oh, yeah, you got it.

GROANING

-So close.

-Oh, he still picked it up, though.

CHEERING

My dad is definitely the best dad in the world. He's fantastic.

-Whoa.

-LAUGHTER

'OK, it's not quite the Power Loader robot

'from Stewart's favourite film Alien,

'but it comes mighty close.'

This was the only way I was ever going to get into one of those

Power Loaders that Ripley drove around, because they don't exist.

The only way it was going to happen is if I made it happen

and I did that,

and that feels, erm, like a real achievement.

Two down, just one more build to be unveiled -

Nick and Carolyn's carousel.

-It's completely bonkers.

-Yeah.

It's a carousel brought together with a sweet machine -

at last, somebody's made it.

I'm really excited about the reveal.

I can't wait to show people, and for them to see

what we've been doing over the last ten weeks.

Yeah, a little bit nervous because, obviously, erm,

a lot of people are coming to see it

and you don't know what they're going to think,

and they might think it's a load of rubbish.

Extra pressure this time, though, in the shape of India.

-Yeah, I know.

-She's six years old, but she knows what she wants.

She does.

We may like it but, if she doesn't, it hasn't been worth it.

I hope India will squeal with delight.

'The safety checks are done, the crowds are gathering,

'and we've been joined by our other magnificent makers,

'as, today, we've got to choose our favourite.'

'But first, we've got a date at the funfair.'

Roll up, roll up, roll up!

Wow. What's going on?

Welcome to this truly scrumptious mechanical carousel

sweet-making machine.

Wow. CHEERING

Oh, my gosh.

-That is extraordinary.

-Wow.

It's incredible, guys.

SARA GASPS

'Well, they've done it -

'a brilliantly bold and bright carousel standing proud.'

'Over 52 square metres of carefully constructed plywood...

'..intricately carved, delicately painted horses...

'..truly multi-functional, with a bar and barbecue for the adults...

'..and, of course, at its heart, a sweet dispenser

'to give Wallace and Gromit a run for their money.

'But the all-important question - will India agree?'

Are you ready to see your very own sweet-dispensing carousel?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Three, two, one...

-Three, two, one...

-There you go.

-Ah.

INDIA SQUEALS

Yeah!

Wow. What do you think of that?

It's the best ever.

Do you want to go and have a go on it?

Yeah, come on, let's go.

Very inviting, isn't it? I want to have a go.

Wow. Oh, gosh.

Jellybeans! Toffee!

And when we start pedalling, all the sweets will come out.

Yay!

Should we have a go, then, Indy? What do you think?

Yay! Yeah!

-All right, feet on the pedals.

-I'm so excited.

Yeah!

There we go. Yay!

'As the pedals turn,

'cogs spin,

'jaws open,

'and sweets start to fall.'

-Oh, my God, look!

-SARA LAUGHS

Yeah!

'Straight onto the floor.'

Jellybeans.

Do you want to stop and get some sweets?

Over there, there's a bucket full of all different sorts.

India, you know all those weeks ago,

when you told Grandpa and Granny what you wanted from this machine?

What do you think? Have they done it?

Yeah, they've absolutely done it.

I think... Yes, I've got it!

It's impossible trying to interview a child

while she's got all these sweets in front of her.

I know, all these different sweets to choose from.

You've done it, guys. Well done.

I think they deserve a huge round of applause. Well done.

CHEERING

Yeah.

'Yes, the sweets went everywhere

'but, for me, that adds to its charm.'

It teeters on the edge of madness

because, if it gave you just a sweet at a time,

it'd be a bit boring, but actually throwing sweets at you, crazily,

-I mean, that's brilliant.

-It throws it at you.

-It's all or nothing.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love the way the wheels are all...

It does look slightly wonky and wobbly

-and that's what makes it magical.

-It does. Yeah.

'And now it's our turn.'

-Whoa! Wahey!

-Wow.

Whoa!

'Madness? Yes. Chaos? Yes.

'Utterly enchanting? Absolutely.'

And it threw sweets on the floor, just as we planned.

Absolutely great. I'm really pleased with it.

Well, this leaves us with a very tricky final task -

to pick our favourite of three truly spectacular back yard builds.

A breakfast maker that cleared up after itself,

a robot that triumphantly fired on cue,

and a carousel that captured the magic of the fairground.

-We have got to decide.

-We do.

-All three things are so different.

With this carousel, I loved the sweets falling down.

I just loved the detail and I loved the scale of it.

You know, I was overwhelmed today by how good it was,

how big it was, how complex, and just how fun.

It's beautiful. It's rougher around the edges

than the breakfast-making machine.

Yeah, which I loved, cos it really is that, sort of,

Wallace and Gromit style mad inventor type, isn't it?

And every bit was so perfectly made. It was a bit of theatre.

-Yeah, it was gorgeous, but then I've seen this today...

-I know.

I can see you're really torn.

Stewart's robot is kind of a miracle, in a way,

because it got finished on time.

He was really up against it and he did something spectacular.

It was mind-blowing in its madness.

OK, so, have we made our decision?

I think so. Don't you?

-Yeah, I think so. I'm thrilled and nervous.

-Me too, yeah.

-Shall we go and tell them?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, let's go.

So, our favourite really did combine the wild and the wacky

and the wonderful, but also was just fantastically engineered -

the way it works and the way it's all come together on the day.

-Have you got the golden hammer ready?

-I do.

Ready and waiting, Sarah.

-Don't laugh, it was no expense spared.

-No expense.

So, our favourite is...

It's Nick and Carolyn's carousel.

CHEERING

CHEERING CONTINUES

-Well done.

-Thank you.

Well done.

-We're not upset, are we?

-No, no, no.

-No, we're not upset. No.

-No, no, no. Not at all. No.

No, actually, they were... No, they were brilliant.

I've hugely enjoyed being able to do this -

just having an excuse to be able to do something as...

as silly and big and as mad as the robot.

Oh, look, there's a sugar-crazed child with a hammer. Get back(!)

The whole process, I have to say, has been an absolute adventure -

a complete adventure from the beginning to the end.

To actually get the golden hammer is just the... Oh, it's just amazing.

Absolutely amazing.

He just won't let me hold it.

-Well, you... You hold that.

-And he think's it's his. It's mine.

Three magnificent makers - three spectacular builds.

But our favourite was the carousel -

a beautiful machine with some tricky mechanics to pull off -

and, in the end, it also had the wow factor we were looking for.

What ever will be next?