Richard Hammond's Blast Lab

BBC Two · Game Shows · 12 Jul 2010 · by: BBC

Richard Hammond opens the doors to his blast lab for a new series of the science-based game show, which examines the weight-dispersing science of ovoid objects.

Based in a secret laboratory under the watermill of his fictitious country mansion, Richard invites two teams of three friends to take part in his crazy experiments and compete for prizes.

This week, Alfie, Tom and Hugo are pitted against Janice, Jamilah and Ashleigh to decide who gets to take their prizes home and who has to blow theirs up.

Oliver, Richard's beloved Opel Kadett, returns with a new improved Fact Nav 2.0, in which the contestants and studio audience have to decide if a series of questions are true or false.

Questions this week include: Does a cat have more bones than a human; and how far does the minute hand of Big Ben travel each year?

There are more high jinx from Ninja Nan, the 70-year-old head of security, and Mini Miss – Richard's 65-year-old former science teacher who is now stuck as a 10-year-old due to a failed time-travel experiment – sets the contestants the task of seeing if the humble protein-packed snack can support the weight of a host of household objects balanced on a platform.

Richard's Lab Rats are, once again, sent out into the field to test the principles of the show to the max in big, bold experiments designed to ignite the audience's interest in science. Can they create a suitable landing pad supported by eggs for the helicopter with Richard inside to land on, or will they be left with a giant H-shaped omelette?

And no episode of Blast Lab is complete without the grand gunge-laden finale – The Messy Mess Test. In Gungee Bungee, the teams have to use a catapult to fire their prize pods across the gunge tanks to their team's net.