Episode Information

Megafactories lifts the lid on how millions of everyday products and iconic designs begin life on the assembly line. From bottles of beer to high speed trains to children’s toys, we expose every cog and conveyor belt of these fascinating production processes from inside some of the planet's most impressive factories. Come behind the scenes at Europe’s largest brewery, Heineken. Here, the company produces 11m hectolitres a year in the greenest mega-brewery in the world. Meanwhile at the Guinness brewery in Dublin we ride along for the busiest two months in Irish beer, from the massive spring barley harvest all the way through to bottling and marketing. The need for speed is a scientific mainstay, and we take the inside line on two super-speed vehicles. Inside the TGV factory in France, cutting edge speed technologies strive for optimal fuel conversion and miniscule aerodynamic changes to ensure top speed, while the Spyker Aileron’s aviation heritage make it one of the quickest cars on the road. In the age of unprecedented competition for kids’ attention – from videogames to TVs to electronic gadgets – children worldwide still spend 5bn hours a year playing with LEGO bricks. But building simple modular toys with interlocking bricks is a lot more complex than it seems. We explore how they do it.