3. Cars

It's the most celebrated period of British ingenuity, but are our Victorian forebears due a rethink?

Sci-curious sisters Kat and Helen Arney are on hand with some revisionist revelations that could turn what we think we know completely upside down.

There are few if any more influential inventions on modern life than the automobile but, as revolutionary as cars were in the late 19th century, has the cost to the environment been worth it? Especially as history could nearly have been very different indeed.

Is it true that the Victorians in fact invented the electric car, and a petrol-free society was within reach?

Helen and Kat are on the trail.

A Hat Trick production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in April 2017.