The Way Things Work was a short-lived
television series based on the best-selling
book of the same name by
David Macaulay. The series was co-produced by
Millimages and
Schlessinger Media; it was distributed by the latter. The program ran daily on
BBC2 and
CBBC from 2001 to early 2002, before it was discontinued due to a lack of both episodes and audience. The series (hand-animated) was one of the last few
educational TV programmes still shown by the
BBC on CBBC. It is one of its most short-lived television series, running for only 26 15 minute episodes. The programme aims to teach basic principles of
science to young viewers and revolves around the residents of the backward Mammoth Island as they struggle through daily life with the use of outlandish contraptions. The series was later dubbed into French and briefly aired in syndication on TV network France 5. A
DVD containing all 26 episodes of the series was released in 2005.