The programme was announced by BBC One in 2023…
In the programme entrepreneur and presenter Sara Davies, and her team, see if they can make the designs of everyday inventors come to life in The Big Idea Works. Episodes will begin airing early next month.
Sara Davies:
“I have absolutely loved every part of helping make The Big Idea Works and it means so much to me on a personal level. This series goes to show how much innovation there is amongst us every day people. Everyone has a brilliant idea in them. By creating those connections to our amazing makers and experts, we can see how all that potential can be transformed into real, solid inventions, which could improve someone’s life!”
The format follows people who have come up with a clever idea for a new product, but don’t know where to start in getting it made. Step in Sara, with her eye for innovation and amazing concepts, who has assembled a team of the country’s most brilliant engineers and fabricators in a specialist workshop, to help develop their initial ideas into fully-functioning and, for some, potentially even money-making prototypes.
Across the series, these creative ideas range from a mess-free birdfeeder and a machine that chills your drinks in seconds, to a sugar-detecting pen for diabetics and a ball that creates bubbles and keeps your bath warm.
Sara has been in business since the age of 21 when she spotted a gap in the craft market and invented an envelope-making tool for card makers. With the help of her engineer dad, she tested and refined her product before making a prototype and selling it.
Since those university days she has since become a successful entrepreneur and a major investor in many UK businesses through her role on Dragons’ Den.
Now, Sara and her team are meeting a host of everyday, budding inventors from all across the UK at her workshop in the heart of the North East to see if they can bring their ideas for new inventions to life.
Helen Munson, Commissioning Editor for BBC Daytime:
“Where better to make a programme about inventing than the North East?! This is where Joseph Swann invented the lightbulb, and George Stephenson became the ‘Father of the Railways’. We are in good company!
“And with the brilliant Sara Davies at the helm we know we are going to unearth brand new inventions for the 21st Century. Gateshead based Twenty Six 03 will be working with a host of local off screen talent to bring this exciting new series to BBC One.”
The new series starts on Monday 3rd February on BBC One at 2pm and will be broadcast Monday to Thursday. It will be a day-one-drop on iPlayer. There are 15 episodes, with one round up episode at the end of the series.
