Dara O'Briain was saved from a robot attack by bullet-proof glass.

Dara O'Briain

Dara O'Briain

The 44-year-old comedian and television presenter is co-hosting the new series of 'Robot Wars' alongside Angela Scanlon and has revealed he faced near death when one of the robots came charging at him at 60mph.

He said: "I have never been more appreciative of bullet-proof glass than when I ducked into one of the ring-side areas as I saw a shard of metal smash in front of our faces. Like it's coming at you at 60mph.

"There was steam coming off this bit that's been wrenched off a robot right in front of us. The bullet-proof glass saved us."

And Dara, who is also known for his hosting duties on the likes of 'Mock The Week', also revealed some of the robots costed in excess of £25,000.

He told Square Eyes: "There are robots which cost £25,000. They're engineered to within an inch of their lives, they have computer systems and they're wrapped in dry ice to cool them.

"There are levels of care that you would not see outside of the Premier League - but there are some proper ding-dong battles. Some are over in seconds, some are three minutes of just smashing each other, sometimes one flips another right out. The contestants generally take it in very good spirit but there were some tears."

And Dara is incredibly excited about presenting the show, which will return to BBC Two on Sunday (24.07.16).

He said previously: "I am thrilled to be presenting 'Robot Wars'. For too long, the schedules have cried out for a show in which dedicated amateurs, toiling day and night, handcraft sophisticated automatons built on the delicate interplay of hand-wired servo motors with custom-built circuit boards and fingertip motion control, just to see them get smashed to pieces by a dustbin carrying a massive hammer. It's war, and how I love it so."


Tagged in