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Meet Jem Stansfield

Engineer Jem loves dreaming up things and then trying to build them in his workshop. But will he ever run out of ideas, and what's the deal with 1988?

Jem is a jack of all trades, and master of... actually, quite a few. What do we mean? Well, he has a degree in aeronautics and a qualification in welding - perfect if you want to build a water-powered jet pack or a toffee-powered rocket sled. Which of course Jem did.

For the past decade, Jem has been creating special effects for movies like Lost in Space and Van Helsing, and producing jaw-dropping exhibits for the Science Museum and Royal Observatory. He's even worked with kindred spirits Wallace and Gromit, though real-life mechanical trousers aren't in the pipeline just yet.

When companies want mad machines and quirky gadgets, they turn to Jem. That's hardly surprising. This is the man who invented the world's first air-powered motorbike, and won a New Scientist prize for boots that walk on water (we're not kidding).

Jem swears that "you cannot claim to understand something unless you've actually made it". Which is a way of saying that he has the skill in his hands to match the ideas in his head.

Before Bang, this hands-on approach to science and technology found a small-screen outlet on Scrapheap Challenge, Men in White (both Channel 4), Science Shack (麻豆社 Two) and Home on their Own (ITV1).

Jem has also turned his hand to herding sheep, labouring, and, um, stand-up comedy. In other words, he'll try pretty much anything. Which is useful, as it's just what he's asked to do on the show.

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Duration:

6 minutes

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