Scrapheap Challenge

Series Nine gets off to a 'Flying Start' as the Beach Bums, a trio of laidback surf dudes from Devon and the Vikings, medieval battle re-enactment enthusiasts from Salisbury, attempt to build human cannonball devices! They'll actually be firing life sized mannequins instead of team members, but why spoil the fun by telling them straight away?

It's a classic battle of brain against brawn this week, as The Engine Eggheads - mechanical engineering students from London, take on The Diggers - a team of no nonsense heavy plant engineers from Hull. The teams must scour the Scrapheap for the parts they'll use to build monstrous motorized trikes.

It's all aboard the scrapheap express as two teams of engineering obssesives attempt to build trains with a difference.

Neither of this week's teams will want to be left out in the cold as they attempt to build snowmobiles from scratch, using just the junk littering the Scrapheap. Suffolk builders, the Cement mixers and Dorset based cabbies the Turbo Taxis have just ten hours to complete their chilly chariots before racing against the clock on the World's only indoor snowmobile track.

Balance is everything - as two more teams try their luck on the Scrapheap. Norfolk firemen, the Extinguishers and vintage railway buffs, the Steaming Scots are set a classic challenge - to build and race giant motorized skateboards!

It's Royal Tournament Scrapheap style as two more teams of Backyard Brunels stake a claim for bodging glory. This week the teams must build mortars that can not only lob miniature basketball ammo over varying distances with pin point accuracy, but also be moved across rough terrain.

Two returning teams will be building Florida style Airboats! The Diggers from Hull and The Beach Bums from Torquay must scavenge lightweight scrap that'll be transformed into high powered vessels that they'll hope to skim round Scrapheap's very own alligator infested everglades.

Scrapheap is going Japanese with a true heavyweight challenge - the teams have just ten hours to construct giant motorised sumo wrestling machines that will do battle on a slippery skid pan arena. With a place in the semifinals at stake, neither the Turbo Taxis from Poole or Plymouth's Super Subs will be taking any prisoners.

Large scale construction projects are the inspiration for the first of this year's semi finals. Devon surfers The Beach Bums and Norfolk firemen The Extinguishers will need every ounce of strength and enthusiasm as they take on one of the biggest builds in Scrapheap history.

In the second of this year's semi finals the teams face a challenge rife with potential danger. Drag Sleds are single axle vehicles powered by massive engines that literally drag a rider behind them on a sled or skis!

It's the big one - The Scrapheap Challenge Final where Woof Justice from Newcastle go head to head with the Beach Bums from Torquay. To get their hands on the 'Scrapheap Challenge Champions Cup' the finalists must build high powered Swamp Racers.

Its Grand Final time as this year's champions Woof Justice take on last years winners The Powerlifters. To win the 'Rings of Steel' trophy the teams will need to bring down the house - literally! They must build hulking bull dozers to lay waste to the Scrapheap demolition sprint course.

Scrapheap Challenge pays tribute to the Godfather of British engineering - Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Inspired by Brunel's paddle steamers that were the first boats to regularly cross the Atlantic with cargo and passengers, teams from both sides of the pond are given two days to build paddle boats capable of crossing the fresh water Scrapheap Atlantic.

The National Motor museum at Beaulieu is the setting for a unique motor racing event as sixteen teams from around the country arrive with home built motorized furniture that they'll race at breakneck speed. Toilets take on dining tables and settees go head to head with bath tubs.

For the second of this year's Roadshows, Scrapheap Challenge visits the Great Dorset Steam Fair. Joining Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers are sixteen teams who've spent the previous month building mechanical 'Wellie Wangers' - eccentric machines designed to throw Wellington boots as far as possible!

Robert Llewellyn and Lisa Rogers look back over the highlights of another year.