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Gregg Wallace gets exclusive access to a factory that builds red London buses, while Cherry Healey visits a bus windscreen factory and Ruth Goodman learns about London’s earliest double-deckers.

The red double-decker bus is a global icon. They carry millions of passengers every day across the capital and are as synonymous with London as Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. Now, Gregg Wallace has special access to a factory in Scarborough, Yorkshire, where they build this famous people mover. But the bus that Gregg is helping to produce is a little bit special, because it’s fully electric.

Gregg helps the factory across all stages of the bus's construction, including operating a crane to lower the bus's steps in place, adding the anti-slip lino, riveting and gluing the walls and wiring the electrics - before taking on the nerve-wracking task of driving the finished bus out of the factory.

Meanwhile, Cherry Healey visits a bus windscreen factory, where she gets to grips with the construction of tough laminated heated windscreens. And in the main bus factory, she helps to give the bus its bright red coat of paint. She also visits an offshore wind farm to learn how turbines convert wind into watts that could one day power the electric buses.

Historian Ruth Goodman learns about London’s earliest double-deckers and the vital role they played in the First World War.

58 minutes

Last on

Tue 14 May 2024 21:00
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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Pete Townshend

    Baba O'Riley

  • 00:01

    Sweet

    Block Buster!

  • 00:03

    Gary Numan

    Are Friends Electric?

    Performer: Tubeway Army.
  • 00:04

    Gary Numan

    Cars

  • 00:05

    Elastica

    Connection

  • 00:07

    ΈιΓ¶²β°μ²υ΄Η±θ±θ

    I Had This Thing

  • 00:08

    Tame Impala

    Elephant

  • 00:09

    Goldfrapp

    Dreaming

  • 00:11

    The Who

    My Generation

  • 00:17

    Blur

    Parklife

  • 00:18

    Madness

    House Of Fun

  • 00:20

    Madness

    Our House (12" Extended Version)

  • 00:22

    Reverend and the Makers

    Heavyweight Champion Of The World

  • 00:29

    Madness

    One Step Beyond

  • 00:29

    Madness

    One Step Beyond

  • 00:31

    Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

    She Taught Me How To Fly (Edit)

  • 00:33

    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Sir Malcolm Sargent

    Johann Strauss II: The Blue Danube Op 314

  • 00:34

    Gary Numan

    Metal

  • 00:36

    Raphael Lake

    Turn It Up

  • 00:43

    The Stranglers

    Peaches

  • 00:44

    The Stranglers

    (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)

  • 00:48

    T. Rex

    Twentieth Century Boy

  • 00:48

    T. Rex

    Twentieth Century Boy

  • 00:54

    The Who

    The Magic Bus

  • 00:55

    The Clash

    London Calling

  • 00:57

    The Jam

    A Town Called Malice

Credits

Presenter Gregg Wallace
Presenter Cherry Healey
Presenter Ruth Goodman
Executive Producer Lucy Carter
Executive Producer Sanjay Singhal
Series Producer Michael Rees
Director Michael Rees
Production Company Voltage TV

Broadcasts

Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.

The fascinating stories behind the production of some of our favourite products.