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Jem Stansfield

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Jem Stansfield
Born
Jeremy Stansfield

December 1970 (age 53)[1]
NationalityBritish
Alma materBristol University
Occupations
Years active2001–present

Jeremy Stansfield (born 1970) is a British engineer and television presenter who is best known for presenting the BBC One science show Bang Goes the Theory.

Career

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Stansfield has a degree in aeronautics from Bristol University and, before his television career, worked in a Czech school, as a shepherd in the Australian outback, and briefly in stand-up comedy.[2] Stansfield was an on-screen ballistics expert for the television show Scrapheap Challenge and went on to become a permanent part of the engineering team for subsequent series.[3][4]

Among his inventions are a compressed-air powered motorcycle, and boots that walk on water (for which he won a New Scientist prize).[5]

In 2010, Stansfield used vacuum cleaners to create "Spider-Man style" climbing gloves, climbing 30 feet up a brick wall.[5][6] He also drove a modified 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco 210 miles from London to Manchester using coffee granules for fuel.[7][8]

In 2013 Stansfield sustained injuries during filming of a segment for the series Bang Goes the Theory. The segment was about the safety of front-facing and rear-facing seats in car crashes. Stansfield was in a cart which crashed, simulating the impact of a car hitting a lamppost and suffered from spine and brain injuries as a result.[9]

In 2021 Stansfield was awarded £1.6m in damages after a High Court battle.[9] It emerged in court that the BBC had been warned of the dangers by crash test experts but this information was never passed to Stansfield.[9]

Filmography

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Television

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Year Title Credit Notes
2001–2003 Science Shack Presenter
2002–2003 Home On Their Own Inventor / Engineer[2]
2004 Zero to Hero Engineer
2006 Scrapheap Challenge Staff Engineer Briefly credited as "Ballistics Expert"
2006 Men in White
2006 Wild Thing: I Love You Presenter / Aeronautical Engineer
2008 Planet Mechanics Presenter 8 episodes
2009–2014 Bang Goes the Theory Presenter / Head of Engineering 49 episodes
2010 Explosions: How We Shook the World Presenter Documentary
2010 Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention Science correspondent
2011 Big, Bigger, Biggest Presenter / Engineer 4 episodes
2012 Horizon Presenter April 2012 episode entitled "Stuff: A Horizon Guide to Materials"
2012 Stargazing Challenges Presenter
2013 Newsround Judge for "You Too Could be an Absolute Genius" segment

Film

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Year Title Credit Notes
1998 Lost in Space[2] Special effects technician For Magic Camera Company
1998 The Avengers[2] Special effects
2004 Van Helsing Special effects

References

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  1. ^ "Jem STANSFIELD". Gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Grimshaw, Vicki (6 July 2002). "Wacky Inventor Jem Stansfield Creates Amazing Gadgets to Make Kids' Dreams Come True in a New TV Series". Daily Mirror.[dead link]
  3. ^ "BIOGRAPHIES: Planet Mechanics". National Geographic Channel. Archived from the original on 13 May 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  4. ^ Gould, Julie (November 2013). "Speaking to... Jem Stansfield". Speaking of Science. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  5. ^ a b Hough, Andrew (16 February 2010). "Jem Stansfield: 'human spiderman' scales 30 ft wall using only vacuum cleaner suctions". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  6. ^ Nosowitz, Dan (25 July 2009). "British Man Climbs Up Side of Building Using DIY Vacuum Gloves". Gizmodo. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  7. ^ "Bang goes the coffee in drive for science in Manchester". BBC News. 11 March 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  8. ^ "TV host's coffee car nears finish". Metro. 11 March 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  9. ^ a b c "Jeremy Stansfield: Bang Goes The Theory host wins £1.6m BBC damages". BBC News. 1 October 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
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