Crazy Contraptions

Contents

Host

Richard Hammond

Co-hosts

Judge: Zach Umperovitch

Insert presenter: Shini Somara

Broadcast

Optomen for Channel 4, 29 April 2022 to present

Synopsis

A sort of inversion of The Great Egg Race in which teams compete to create "chain reaction machines" to carry out a simple task in the most complicated way. In one section they have to demonstrate a particular scientific principle and in another they need to incorporate a particular object. Knockout series structure.

Part of a machine built by team "Social Mediocrity" to flip a switch on the kettle at the right of the screen.

Unfortunately, with so many moving parts (and on this occasion that's not a metaphor), there's very little time to focus on the various engineering challenges in any depth, and then the finale is critically undermined by choppy editing. To show off a chain reaction machine properly, the camerawork needs to be as well choreographed as the machine itself, capturing the whole thing in a single flowing shot if at all possible. 48 edits in 70 seconds really won't cut it - or rather it will cut it, to ribbons, robbing us and the teams of the big "wow" moment at the end. All a bit of a shame, because this could have been a fun twist on the build-a-machine genre, if only the contestants' ingenuity had been matched on the production side.

Trivia

Officially billed as Richard Hammond's Crazy Contraptions.

See also

Simply Complicated

Pictures

They had the "social distancing" thing sorted, though.

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