Mechanical mayhem makes welcome return
It may seem a little early to be feeling nostalgic for the heady days of 1998 to 2004, when Robot Wars gave amateur engineers the chance to pit their home-made radio-controlled robots against each other. However, a lot has changed since the series trundled out of the arena – in 2004, we didn’t have Twitter or iPhones, and Facebook was in its infancy. So, as
Robot Wars (Sunday, BBC2, 8pm)
comes back on to our screens, all guns blazing and blades whirring, will we also notice some big breakthroughs in fighting machine technology? Dara O Briain, who is hosting the revamped series alongside Angela Scanlon, certainly thinks so, pointing out that the house robots have all undergone upgrades since we last saw them. He says:“One major thing about the new Robot Wars is that if you put any of the old house robots in the pit with the ones that feature now, they would last about eight seconds because things have moved on. The house robots grip harder than they used to, they smash further, they move quicker, they are terrifyingly bigger and heavier than the first time round. But then, aren't we all?” While the robots may be more advanced, it seems the makers of this new series have largely resisted the temptation to tinker with what made Robot Wars such a cult favourite. O Briain says:“I think people love the show simply because everything just smashes into everything else and it is sparks and explosions and metal being torn up. It's carnage, who doesn't enjoy that? “Also the human story of Robot Wars is really popular too, a team of three people working together in a shed; fans who have put months of time, effort and passion into it, but then their appearance on the show lasts 40 seconds because they drove their robot into a pit.” Scanlon adds:“Especially when they’ve re-mortgaged their house to build the robot of their dreams and then boom, it’s all over, just like that.” Hopefully a new generation of viewers will be inspired to retreat to their sheds and create their own ultimate warrior after this opening episode, which sees teams including students from Reading and a family from Caithness, competing in a group stage and head-to-head rounds to make it to the episode final. We’ll also get to see if the class of 2016 really does outclass the robots of the past as a memorable former contestant returns – and to prove that some things never change, Jonathan Pearce is back to provide the commentary.