Cassie Newland

Behind every seemingly impossible marvel of modern engineering is a cast of historic trailblazers who designed new building techniques, took risks on untested materials and revolutionised their field. Each episode details how giant structures, record-beating buildings, war ships and spacecraft are built and work. As the show revels in these modern day creations, it also leaps back in time to recount the stories of the exceptional engineers whose technological advances made it all possible.

Every time we switch on a light or boil a kettle we rely on power - but most people don't stop to think about the inventions and discoveries that allow us to live the way we do. In an exciting new four-part series for BBC Two, The Genius of Invention reveals the fascinating chain of events behind inventions that make everyday life possible.

Ten celebrities are about to leave their 21st century lives and everything they know behind to become time travellers. Our ten intrepid travellers will crash into six very different eras of British history and have no idea where – or when – they're going. They will spend a day immersed in each era, living, working, dressing and eating as the ‘lower' classes did whilst attempting to follow orders and fulfil a task set by their superiors. Will they be able to survive history and will they be able to leave their smartphones behind?