Speed was a BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television series about the history of fast vehicles, including aeroplanes, boats and cars. The show was presented by Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...

 and consisted of six episodes. Each focused on a different aspect of speed. The series was first shown in the UK on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 in 2001, and was subsequently shown to an international audience on BBC World

BBC World

BBC World News is the BBC's international news and current affairs television channel. It has the largest audience of any BBC channel in the world...

 and in Australia on the HOW TO Channel

HOW TO Channel

HOW TO Channel was an Australian cable and satellite television channel. It was carried on the Foxtel Digital, Optus TV featuring Foxtel Digital and Austar Digital platforms. It was owned by Premier Media Group, a 50/50 joint venture of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited and News Corporation.The...

. Jeremy Clarkson's Speed, a video containing an hour of highlights from the series was also released in 2001. The video was released on DVD, as part of The Jeremy Clarkson Collection in 2007.

List of episodes

#	Episode	Airdate
1	The Thrill of Speed	10 June 2001
Jeremy takes his mother on a rollercoaster, rides with the British Army bobsleigh team and visits California to investigate dragboat racing to understand why some people love speed when some others don't. Jeremy then interviews Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...  World Champion Damon Hill Damon Hill Damon Graham Devereux Hill OBE is a retired British racing driver. In 1996 Hill won the Formula One World Championship. As the son of the late Graham Hill, he is the only son of a world champion to win the title...  in an attempt to find out.
2	Superstars of Speed	17 June 2001
Jeremy interviews Formula One Formula One Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...  World Champion Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver of all time... , World Rally World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...  Champion Colin McRae Colin McRae Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first British person and the youngest to win the...  and tennis player Greg Rusedski Greg Rusedski Gregory "Greg" Rusedski is a British Canadian former tennis player who turned professional in 1991 and played until his retirement on 7 April 2007, at the age of 33... in an attempt to find out what makes some people better at coping with high speed than the rest of us.
3	Surviving Speed	24 June 2001
Jeremy attempts to discover how a fragile human body can cope with the power of Speed. He also explores the risks of rapid transit, meets Cresta Run riders in St Moritz and talks to the chief test pilot of the Eurofighter.
4	Nature Fights Back	1 July 2001
Jeremy meets desert racers, speed skiers, test pilots, skydivers and astronauts, in an attempt to find out how nature fights back. He then attempts the Anglo-American race to break the sound barrier and experiences oxygen deprivation in pressurisation unit.
5	Superhuman Speed	8 July 2001
Jeremy takes his first love, the internal combustion engine, to a new personal record of 215mph on the salt flats of Utah. He then climbs aboard the fastest ever jet-powered plane, straps a jet engine to a push bike and gets up close to a space shuttle engine at full power.
6	The Century of Speed	15 July 2001
Looking to the future, Jeremy comes to the surprising conclusion that speed was a 20th century phenomenon and everything is slowing down. He also discovers that 20th century speed machines are becoming toys, which he promptly proves by getting behind the controls of a fighter plane in a dogfight with a German. Plus Jeremy reveals his ultimate favourite speed machine.