DVD
Mark Williams, best known for his roles in TV’s popular comedy The Fast Show, shows his enthusiasm for technology and history in this sadly overlooked TV programme. Its second series has been released on this three-DVD set.
The show examines the machines, tools and inventions of the 18th and 19th centuries that created the Industrial Revolution. Williams travels around the UK demonstrating the machines and placing each technology in its historical context. He visits tin mines in Cornwall, and explains the significance of the “forgotten heroes” of the Industrial Revolution – machine tools.
In the second DVD he describes how a quest to serve cool beer kickstarted the development of hydraulics, and he charts the invention and application of electricity in society. The final DVD uncovers how William Murdoch’s dream of powered road transport in the early days of steam ended 100 years later with the first motor car.
Williams has an enthusiastic and affable presenting style and a gift for explaining how these revolutionary devices work. Which is just as well, because the DVD set is basically 235 minutes of him talking to camera and narrating over footage of machines and montages of pictures and diagrams.
The DVD is not high on production technique or on production values and this is probably its biggest downfall. There was obviously a small budget for this series, so don’t buy it if you want to be dazzled by sophisticated animations and exciting camera shots like you get on, for example, BBC’s Horizon.
There are no extra features – perhaps a missed opportunity when you consider the documents, pictures and animations of the inventions Williams covers.
However, the series still retains a raw charm, and in a way the simple approach lets the machines and their stories take centre stage.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to catch any of this series on the TV – it languishes on some fairly lower-tier cable and satellite channels – then this is the perfect opportunity.
- More Industrial Revelations with Mark Williams is available for £29.99 or less online from DVD retailers