Lately, I've started rewatching old terrestrial TV shows at times of particularly high stress or workload, when my brain is simply too frazzled to risk being disappointed by something new. Last year it was the archaeology show Time Team. This year it's Robot Wars, the competitive robot battling show that ran on the BBC and, later, Channel 5 from 1998 to 2004.
If you've not had the pleasure of watching Robot Wars, because you were too young or lived outside of the UK (you may be familiar with its American equivalent Battlebots) it's a tournament-based affair where amateur engineers build their own robots weaponised with axes, crushers, flywheels, and flipping mechanisms, then pitch them against each other in remote-controlled bouts of mechanical mayhem. Alongside the competing bots, the arena is patrolled by bigger 'House Robots' with names like Sir Killalot, Sergeant Bash, and my personal favourite, Dead Metal, a gunmetal lobster that clutches robots with hydraulic claws and then shreds them with a retracting circular sawblade.
