The story of a genius joker who transformed steam-powered ships, and surprised Queen Victoria. But was she amused?

Sir Charles Algernon Parsons was a man who defied all expectations. Despite being the son of an earl and graduating from Cambridge with a first-class degree in Mathematics, he chose to join a Newcastle engineering firm as a lowly apprentice. His apprenticeship was put to good use, and during the course of his long career in marine engineering his inventions transformed sea travel not once, but three times. His grand stunt to gate-crash the Navy Review for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria with his latest invention - the world's fastest ship at the time - went down in history as one of the most audacious publicity stunts ever mounted at sea.

In the centenary year of the invention of the steam turbine engine, Professor Ian Fells of Newcastle University looks back the work of Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and how his invention, manufactured on Tyneside, is still of being used today in the generation of electricity. In the second part of the programme, there's a studio discussion on the issues around the different ways of generating electricity: gas, coal and nuclear fission.