The Great Egg Race was a early classic eighties TV show produced by the BBC. Think of it as the prototype for Scrapheap Challenge (or Junkyard Wars for you septics): teams of engineering enthusiasts had to create a machine to solve a problem, usually transporting or protecting an egg, using simple domestic equipment.

While the solutions were certainly not as dramatic or large as those of Scrapheap Challenge, they were often more ingenious. About the only example I can remember was when one team created a hovercraft from a flymo and a few radio control parts to speed their egg across a pool.

Like the latter two shows, the Great Egg Race had experts on hand to analyse and criticise the teams' efforts, and the winner of each show would progress to the next round. Where Scrapheap has an animated chalkboard to illustrate the team's designs, the experts on the Great Egg Race would draw their sketches on a sheet on tracing paper illuminated from above, and photographed below. Low tech, but effective.

The Great Egg Race was presented by the unique and unforgettable Professor Heinz Wolff, the archetype for absent-minded science teachers throughout the world.

You can hear the theme tune from the show at: (RealMedia)

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