Local Heroes — Season 1, Episode 1: South West
Documentary • 30 min • 5 seasons, 42 episodes
Episode synopsis
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 and a breakfast maker. He also discovers how lead shot was first produced, tries laughing gas in memory of Humphry Davy and, in Gloucestershire, wields the knife Edward Jenner used to perform the first smallpox vaccination.
About Local Heroes
Local Heroes is an award-winning science and history television programme in the United Kingdom, presented by Adam Hart-Davis. Made by Screenhouse Productions and directed by Paul Bader, it was first aired on the ITV regional network Yorkshire Television in 1991. In the show, Adam Hart-Davis, dressed in the pink and yellow cycling clothes that would became the show's trademark, rode around the YTV region on a matching pink and yellow bicycle, stopping in a particular area to tell the stories of scientists that lived or were born there. These stories were embellished by experiments, performed on the street by Hart-Davis, generally using bits of wood and junk from a trailer on his bike.