Segment 1: SparkShock-Times 1

Tells the story of the very first “natural philosophers” who started to unlock the mysteries of electricity. They studied its curious link to life, built strange and powerful instruments to create it and even tamed lightning. These men truly laid the foundations of the modern world. Electricity was, without doubt, a fantastical wonder. This episode tells what happened when the first concerted effort was made to understand electricity and how we learned to create and store it – before finally creating something that enabled us to make it at will: the battery.

Segment 2: The Age of InventionShock-Times 2

Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound: electricity is connected to another of nature’s most fundamental forces – magnetism. In the second episode, Jim discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which could be used to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention. Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse are among the giants of electricity who are featured in this episode.

Segment 3: Revelations and RevolutionsShock-Times 3

Electricity is not just something that creates heat and light, it connects the world through networks and broadcasting. After centuries of experiments with electricity, the final episode tells the story of how a new age of understanding dawned: the discovery of electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today we can hardly imagine life without electricity – it defines our era. As our understanding of it has increased so has our reliance upon it, and today we’re on the brink of a new breakthrough. If we can understand the secret of electrical superconductivity, we could, once again, transform the world.