Fasten your seatbelts for a VERY bumpy ride: Madness on Wheels, on BBC4 at 9pm tonight.

MADNESS ON WHEELS TRAILER from BIGGER PICTURE on Vimeo.




Motor sports fans in the UK are in for a real treat tonight with the documentary Madness on Wheels, to be shown on BBC4 at 9pm (you can watch a trailer above). The documentary, by the same film-making team (Bigger Picture) that made ‘Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans Disaster‘, which I wrote about here,  and the equally brilliant Grand Prix: The Killer Years, (which I can also heartily recommend),  tells the dramatic- and I mean dramatic- story of Group B rallying in the 1980s.

I was lucky enough to attend a preview of 'Madness on Wheels' and it’s quite brilliant. The shots of the cars in action are incredible and the interviews with the likes of Ari Vatanen, Walter Rohrl and Christian Geistdorfer - men who risked their lives for their sport, make really compelling television.


Here's some more info on tonight's programme from the BBC4 website:

In the 1980s rallying was more popular than Formula 1. 'Group B' machines had taken the world by storm. De-regulation opened the way for the most exciting cars ever to hit the motorsport scene. Nothing like it has ever happened since.





For four wild and crazy years manufacturers scrambled to build ever more powerful cars to be driven by fearless mavericks who could handle the extreme power. The sport was heading out of control and the unregulated mayhem ended abruptly in 1986 after a series of horrific tragedies. This is the story of when fans, ambition, politics and cars collided.


'The fans were crazy. As the cars sped by the spectators ran into the road!' - Ari Vatanen


'They were playing with their lives'.

'To go rallying is madness. This was refined madness' - John Davenport.




If you’re not able to catch tonight’s programme, or any of the repeats on BBC4 in the next few days, or you are able to watch it and would like to buy a DVD copy, then the film is available for purchase here.

While here you can purchase a DVD of ‘Grand Prix: The Killer Years’.

Good early Christmas presents for anyone you know who loves motor sport.