Local Heroes

1. S01E01South WestJanuary 2, 1996—Tonight, he travels to Bristol and the south west of England where he pays tribute to the woman who invented a bed with built-in exerciser a
2. S01E02SouthJanuary 9, 1996—Tonight, Adam's journey takes him south, and in Chard, Somerset he recreates the world's first powered flight - which was made 50 years befo
3. S01E03ScotlandJanuary 16, 1996—Tonight, Adam's journey takes him to Scotland, and includes the story of Neville Maskelyne, the man who weighed all the planets of the solar
4. S01E04MidlandsJanuary 23, 1996—Tonight's stories of pioneering scientists and inventors come from the Midlands. Host Adam Hart-Davis investigates the Lunar Society of Birm
5. S01E05Northern IrelandJanuary 30, 1996—Tonight's stories of pioneering scientists and inventors come from Northern Ireland. Host Adam Hart-Davis discovers that the pneumatic tyre,
6. S01E06North WestFebruary 6, 1996—The last in the series about pioneering scientists and inventors comes from the north west of England. Host Adam Hart-Davis discovers the co

Season 1 ranked & reviewed

1. S02E01DevonJanuary 6, 1997—Adam begins his search in Devon where he discusses the work of great British engineering innovators, such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Henry
2. S02E02ScotlandJanuary 13, 1997—Adam Hart-Davis goes in search of pioneers of science and invention in Scotland. He investigates the achievements of Alexander Bain, Charles
3. S02E03EastJanuary 20, 1997—Hart-Davis's journey around the country takes him to Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. En route he re-creates a treadmill invented by William Hase
4. S02E04North EastJanuary 27, 1997—In Tyne and Wear Adam Hart-Davis re-creates the device conceived by Whitley Bay's Gladstone Adams. Travelling home from the FA Cup final, Ad
5. S02E05WalesFebruary 3, 1997—On a visit to Wales cycling scientist Adam Hart-Davis gets bogged down on the road to Holyhead. Fortunately, one of his heroes is the great
6. S02E06South EastFebruary 10, 1997—Cycling scientist Adam Hart-Davis visits London, where he re-creates a device invented by Hertha Ayrton to clear trenches of poison gas duri
7. S02E07Science Week SpecialMarch 20, 1997—
8. S02E08Exploding HeroesOctober 31, 1997—

Season 2 ranked & reviewed

1. S03E01Devon and CornwallMarch 2, 1998—First of an eight-part series in which Adam Hart-Davis cycles around the country in search of the unsung heroes of science. He visits south
2. S03E02LondonMarch 9, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis cycles around the country in search of the unsung heroes of science. This week he visits London, where he builds his own su
3. S03E03EgyptMarch 16, 1998—In the first of two programmes to mark Science Week, Adam Hart-Davis travels to Egypt in search of the earliest heroes of science. Using a d
4. S03E04SicilyMarch 19, 1998—In the second programme for Science Week that traces the origins of modern science, Adam Hart-Davis visits southern Italy, home to the grea
5. S03E05SouthMarch 23, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis continues his search for unsung heroes of science when he cycles around the south of England. On a stop-off in Surrey, he us
6. S03E06IrelandMarch 26, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis cycles around Ireland to rediscover some scientific milestones. He looks at how John Tyndall found the sky was blue, how Cha
7. S03E07N & W BirminghamMarch 30, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis searches for unsung heroes of science on a trip to the Potteries, Staffordshire. Using a few pipes, a ribbon and an air pump
8. S03E08North WestApril 6, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis takes a ferry across the Mersey to celebrate the work of the North West's unsung heroes of science in the last of the curren
9. S03E09South of EnglandSeptember 7, 1998—Adam Hart Davis begins another cycling tour in search of more tales of pioneering inventors in an eight-part fourth series. Hart-Davis begi
10. S03E10EdinburghSeptember 14, 1998—This week Hart-Davis makes the journey to Elgin, re-creating the moment when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and to the site w
11. S03E11The NetherlandsSeptember 21, 1998—In Delft, Hart-Davis profiles the draper who was the first person to see bacteria through a microscope and the book-keeper whose gravity exp
12. S03E12North of EnglandSeptember 28, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis recalls William Sturgeon's inventing the electric motor and James Nasmyth's steam hammer; he also sees Joseph Paxton's inspi
13. S03E13GloucestershireOctober 5, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis recalls the work of Edwin Beard Budding, who invented the lawnmower, and focuses on William Henry Fox Talbot, the father of
14. S03E14HeroinesOctober 12, 1998—
15. S03E15East MidlandsOctober 19, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis cycles to Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire to find out about this week's heroes. They include Frank Whittle, who invented
16. S03E16West of ScotlandOctober 26, 1998—Adam Hart-Davis concludes the series by visiting western Scotland. There he learns about John Logie Baird, inventor of the television, Lord

Season 3 ranked & reviewed

1. S04E01Episode 1July 5, 1999—Adam Hart-Davis gets on his bike for another six-part series searching for tales of scientific discovery. This week he reveals the heroes of
2. S04E02East of ScotlandJuly 12, 1999—Adam Hart-Davis's cycling tour of Britain takes him to Scotland, where he visits St Andrews to see how backspin helps a golf ball defy gravi
3. S04E03North of EnglandJuly 19, 1999—Adam Hart-Davis's cycling tour of Britain takes him this week to Yorkshire, where he visits Leeds Bridge, site of the first motion picture b
4. S04E04LondonJuly 26, 1999—Adam Hart-Davis visits London as he salutes more pioneers of science. He sees how Brunei tunnelled under the Thames, discovers the inventor
5. S04E05North of EnglandAugust 2, 1999—Adam Hart-Davis celebrates more pioneers of science, this week in Yorkshire and Lancashire, where he uncovers the steelmaking process that p
6. S04E06Royal Institution SpecialAugust 9, 1999—In the last programme of the series, Adam Hart-Davis celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Royal Institution - made famous by pioneering s

Season 4 ranked & reviewed

1. S05E01LondonMay 16, 2000—Cycling boffin Adam Hart-Davis pedals around Britain for a six-part sixth series, hunting out unsung pioneers of scientific ideas. London is
2. S05E02Episode 2May 23, 2000—Adam Hart-Davis continues his bicycle tour of Britain with a visit to England's south coast, where he celebrates the construction of Brighto
3. S05E03Episode 3May 30, 2000—Adam Hart-Davis stops off in Yorkshire as he continues his celebration of unsung scientists. In Whitby, he lauds whaling scientist William S
4. S05E04Nobel Prize WinnersJune 6, 2000—In an edition devoted to celebrating Britons who have won the Nobel Prize, Adam Hart-Davis lauds John Cockcroft's work on splitting the atom
5. S05E05Episode 5June 13, 2000—Adam Hart-Davis sets his sights further afield with a trip to Italy, where he ascends the Leaning Tower of Pisa in a bid to reproduce Galile
6. S05E06East MidlandsJune 27, 2000—In the last instalment of the series, viewers get the chance to show off their ideas for hovercraft, ice lenses, scientific musical instrume

Season 5 ranked & reviewed