Dirty Great Machines

In this first episode, in London a tunnel boring machine faces immense challenges as it takes on Britain's deepest ever tunnel. Meanwhile in Mexico, a giant mechanical worm makes the earth move just metres beneath the city's soaring skyscrapers.

We meet the bucket wheel excavators. Their mission is to peel back the surface of the earth with each turn of their colossal parts.

Man's desire for natural resources is insatiable, whether it is to power our homes, fuel our cars or build our skyscrapers. But with reserves on land running dry, we are now looking to the oceans to satisfy the needs of 21st century living. This programme showcases the cutting-edge machines at the forefront of this assault.

In Canada, almost two miles underground in the world's deepest copper and zinc mine, a mighty drill chews through rock, digging deep holes which are then filled with explosives and detonated, leaving behind debris packed with valuable minerals.