REVIEW: The Great Escapists, Series 1 Episode Two 'Power Up'

 REVIEW: The Great Escapists, Series 1 Episode Two 'Power Up'

I'm still not a fan of the spoof style, but this was a lot better than the disappointing first episode. It does at least tone down the comedy significantly, and focus more on the factual elements of the programme, offering something closer towards what I was expecting this show to be.

The way they charge Richard's washed up phone using a combination of vegetables and nails is really clever and unusual; it's weird to think that a method like that actually works well enough to be able to give a phone a full charge, although I do question the logic of a mobile phone that was caught in a shipwreck still being able to work after being subjected to what would have been a great load of water. I mean, I had a phone back in 2017 that completely stopped working after being subjected to rain water from an umbrella during a holiday to Disneyland Paris! And that was just rain water!

The things they make in this episode get very 'Swiss Family Robinson'. For instance there's a device that Richard deems 'The Alternator'. The device produces electricity for the island through Richard cranking the machine with sheer hand power. It's the kind of eccentricity that you would expect to find in something like a Wallace and Gromit short; indeed, in an alternate universe it could have very easily been one of Wallace's inventions from the Aardman classic.

The water wheel is another very cool build they create here. This is to help supply the power without Richard having to provide the man power, transporting water from the island down the shoot and into the wheel to make it spin. It's amazing just how Richard Hammond and Tory Belleci manage to pull this off, and shows the sheer amount of skill and knowledge this pair possess.

Perhaps more impressive is the lighthouse, which they even manage to get to operate with a constant rotation so that the light is constantly beaming across the island. To do this they use the weight from Tory in his hammock, although you do wonder how easy this would actually be in a real life desert island situation, given that you'd need somebody of exactly the right weight needed to pull it off.

The less successful elements of this episode are, unsurprisingly, the spoof segments, which continue to make me cringe. I could have done without Richard and Tory's ant antics, or their inane argument over whether the sail is the one from their ship, hinting at somebody else on the island with them, or from another ship that was shipwrecked before. It's not particularly funny, it's just needlessly stupid, and this show would be a lot better if it just focused on the factual elements.

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What are your thoughts on The Great Escapists' second episode? Let me know in the comments.