Come to Your Senses

"Come to Your Senses"
Number	4
Directed by	Merlin Crossingham
Produced by	Nick Park Peter Lord
Air Date	November 24, 2010
Previous	"Home Sweet Home"
Next	"Better Safe Than Sorry"

"Hello, viewers! And welcome to my World of Invention. The show that takes the mystery out of chemistry and puts the fizz back into physics."

"Come to Your Senses" is the fourth episode of the BBC One series Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention.

Synopsis

"My old gran used to say, "Wallace, you've got no sense, you daft apeth". Well, I don't know what she was on about, bless her, because I have. Five, to be precise. So today's programme is all about some extraordinary inventions to do with the senses."

Wallace and Gromit experience the world through the five senses, exploring the fact and fiction behind invisibility cloaks, bomb-detecting bees and the top sensory inventions. In London, scientists are creating prototype invisibility cloaks using metamaterials to bend light around objects, and we discover the science behind new technology allowing the blind to 'see' through taste using hi-tech sunglasses. In Kentucky, USA we visit the small town where a local farmer invented wireless telephones over 100 years ago. Finally, in Tasmania, we meet our Inventor of the Week who, after being told it was impossible, invented and made his own unique prosthetic arm.

Segment 1

(This segment was based around sight)

Introducing the segment, Wallace suggests "why don't we look at an amazing invisibility cloak?" When he repeats the "why don't we?" part, he answers "because it's invisible, of course". Gromit simply face palms over this bad joke.

Segment 2

Contraption Countdown

Wallace remarks that he doesn't see metamaterial invisibility cloaks catching on. He then tries to demonstrate one form of sense-related communication. In this example, Wallace would want a word with Gromit, but Gromit has his headphones on. He can't hear Wallace. So using Indian smoke signals via a towel and a fire in a bucket, Wallace would spell out "Cup of tea, lad". However, he accidentally sets fire to the towel and tries to inform Gromit, initially to no avail. Using a megaphone, he informs Gromit that he'd better roll the Contraption Countdown. Noticing, Gromit promptly brings out a fire extinguisher as Wallace suggests calling the fire brigade before handing it over to Goronwy, who in this week's Countdown shows five amazing gadgets to do with the senses.

5. Taste: Footage of the Electric Tongue, which turns taste into sound. Goronwy doesn't seem impressed by the demonstration with the orange ("Hmm, not Katherine Jenkins though, is it?) and is repulsed by the demonstration with a piece of cheese ("Oh, never eat cheese again!")
4. Sight: Pussy's Glasses - glasses for short-sighted cats. That said, Goronwy doesn't feel that surprised cats can't read an optician's eye chart due to being cats, though he remarks they do look cool in them.
3. Smell: Raider's Nightmare - a demonstration of "Operation Skunk" from 1961, an anti-theft device that sprays foul-smelling smoke over two elderly raiders who try to get into the back of a van. Goronwy humorously assures the thieves "Yeah, see you in chokey, Granddad."
2. Hearing: Acoustic earmuffs for the elephants kept at the former Windsor Safari Park, designed to help them cope with the air traffic from the nearby Heathrow Airport. Goronwy initially mistakes the earmuffs for a Walkman-like device.
1. Touch: Footage of Tony Voitechovsky's (whose last name Goronwy mispronounces as "Wacheski") Trichosan Treatment, intended as a baldness cure via massaging the scalp and stimulating hair growth. Goronwy lamentedly implies that the treatment only ever did one of those things.

Segment 3

It Never Got Off the Drawing Board (This segment was themed around sound)

After thanking Goronwy, Wallace decides he should stick to more traditional communications. He then tries demonstrating another form of communication by bringing up two speaking tubes, like those the early submariners used. When he tries to get Gromit's attention through these, he unwisely blows a whistle into his tube, before asking for a cup of tea. Wallace then says that while he waits, he would show the audience some other ways to make themselves heard which never got off the drawing board. An irate Gromit however, pours the tea directly into his end of the speaking tubes, causing it to spray out of the one on Wallace's end, dousing him in tea. Wallace hands it over to Jem Stansfield who would trace a call from 100 years ago.

Segment 4

Inventor of the Week (This segment was based on touch)

Wallace remarks how Stubblefield's mobile phone system seemed like a ground-breaking idea at first. Gromit arrives with some tea and some freshly-baked teacakes. Wallace says that he's touched by the gesture before, speaking of touch, deciding to give a warm hand to this week's Inventor of the Week - while juggling a still-hot teacake between his hands.

Mark Lesek

Segment 5

Curiosity Corner (This segment was smell-themed)

After welcoming the viewers to Curiosity Corner, he asks if them if they heard of spelling bees, before introducing them to some curious creatures in the form of smelling bees.

Segment 6

(This was a taste-themed segment)

Wallace remarks that it's no wonder the "bomb-le bees" had been causing a buzz. He then introduces the last segment which was on taste. And he felt there was no better way to demonstrate than with a slice of his favourite cheese. Gromit sticks a clothes peg over his nose as he looks in the fridge for the cheese in question. As Wallace anticipates his treat, he suggests to the viewer they should first sample some rather "tasteful" glasses.

Conclusion

A touched Wallace commends the dogged devotion in not giving up a guide dog. He concludes the show by asking the viewers where they would be without their senses. He answers it himself by saying they'd be unable to appreciate the true wonder of cheese. Gromit brings a cheese tray over as Wallace puts on a face shield, and he asks the viewers if they heard of Stinking Bishop, before telling them to look at his own more pungent take on it - "Stinking Archbishop". Lifting the cover off results in a nuclear explosion-like blast front that blows the clothes peg on Gromit's nose off. Wallace offers a slice to Gromit, but because of his hyper-acute sense of smell, it knocks Gromit out instead, leaving Wallace to sample the cheese himself as he signs off.

Trivia

• Featured song: "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order
• The Stinking Bishop scene from Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is referenced at the end of the episode. The Stinking Bishop cheese was used in that film to revive Wallace.

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