In Extreme Engineering, architect Danny Forster takes you inside some of the most head-scratching builds in the world. Join Danny as he meets the men and women tackling the unique challenges of constructing the tallest buildings, the most effective military tanks, the largest luxury cruise ships and the most extreme thrill rides. How do you build a 949m long wooden roller coaster in winter temperatures of minus 40 degrees? Or get your workers safely to and from a worksite on a skyscraper that's 492m above street level? Or dig a water tunnel along the San Andreas Fault and 305m below the earth's surface without it collapsing on itself or flooding? Our intrepid host resolves these puzzles and more. Don't miss the big stories behind these even bigger engineering marvels.

Episode 1: Go aboard a high-tech US Navy destroyer with host Danny Forster to get the inside track on its construction. He will be put to work around the ship as it goes through its war games. He'll watch as they run helicopter flight operations. He'll join the team performing the delicate manoeuvre of refuelling the ship at sea. He’ll go to the bowels of the vessel to meet with the engine crew that keeps four massive turbines churning. And he'll try reading and interpreting sonar and radar systems. Finally, Danny travels to the famed Bath Iron Works shipyard along the Penobscot River in Maine. Within this heavily guarded, high-security yard, Danny's first stop will be a huge hangar, where over a hundred workers put the finishing touches to a brand new destroyer.

Episode 2: Go inside one of the most difficult and dangerous tunnelling projects in the world with Danny Forster. Outside Los Angeles, Danny meets with miners who are attempting to dig two huge tunnels that will supply fresh water to southern California. More than 300m beneath a mountain range, the project has faced cave-ins and floods - not to mention the ever-present risk of earthquakes as its being constructed along the San Andreas fault.

Episode 3: Danny Forster's been on construction sites all over the world and he's great at figuring out and explaining how the toughest jobs in the world get done. In this episode, Danny goes to construction boot camp. For one week, he gets a crash course in everything from heavy equipment operation to getting lunch for the foreman. Under the sceptical eye of guys who know what it's like to take a green kid, break him down and then build him up again, Danny will gain a new appreciation for the sheer skill and persistence it takes to master the building trades.

Episode 4: As soon as host Danny Forster steps into the towering construction lift hanging off the side of the Shanghai World Financial Centre, he knows he's in for the ride of his life. Soon to be the tallest skyscraper in the world, the SWFC now stands 77 storeys tall - and it's growing a floor a week. But the job of building this monster is incredibly tough. Besides a near crippling fear of heights, Danny has to contend with the onset of frigid winter winds born on an approaching typhoon - all while hanging on the outside of the skyscraper, over 300m in the air.

Episode 5: At the US Army Armor Center in Fort Knox, Kentucky, Danny Forster embarks on a quest to drive the army's most potent land weapon - the $5 million M1 Abrams tank. Abrams crews in active service are driving more than five times the peacetime mileage, which results in massive wear and tear and battle damage. Danny lends a hand rebuilding these tired giants at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama where, in just 55 days, a battle wary Abrams can be made as good as new. Danny also learns firsthand what it takes to become a tanker - the special breed of soldier that operates this 70 ton machine.

Episode 6: Rollercoasters are pushing the limits of human endurance: Danny Forster builds and rides the newest scream machines to uncover how. At a Virginia theme park, Danny helps daredevil ironworkers who are risking their lives erecting the Griffon, a 63m high-dive coaster, the tallest in the world. He joins another team building the Renegade, a massive wooden rollercoaster in Minnesota. With only two months before it must be finished, they're forced to work through arctic winter conditions. In Florida, Danny tries taming some of the fiercest coasters on the planet: both wooden and steel.

Episode 7: Host Danny Forster climbs aboard a helicopter in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, to get an eagle eye view of the City of Culture. This is a sprawling, 362 sq km complex that will house libraries, performance spaces, and museums in six completely unique structures. Designed to look like they've been carved out of a mountaintop, the exterior of each colossal structure is covered entirely in glass and stone. The equivalent of building a skyscraper on its side, this project is so huge the only way to get a handle on all 700,000m of the work site is to see it from the sky. Danny takes us to frightening heights to illustrate the scale and magnitude of this ambitious project. Back on the ground, Danny hooks up with a world-renowned architect. This gives Danny a rare chance to dive in as the country's best engineers solve the daunting task of turning an abstract idea into one of the largest cultural complexes in the world.