3:52 pm, October 4, 2022
A new series begins on BBC Two next week that promises to tell the intimate story of Tesla boss Elon Musk’s journey to become the world’s richest man.
Makers of The Elon Musk Show say the programme gets to the heart of who Musk really is by interviewing the people who know him best.
Family members, employees, close friends and enemies are featured in the three-part documentary series, which also uses extensive archive footage from throughout the 51-year-old’s life from South Africa to Silicon Valley.
It analyses the key moments in his career, from his first tech start-ups through to Tesla and SpaceX.
The first episode, which airs at 9pm on Wednesday, October 12 and will be available afterwards on iPlayer, takes the viewer back to 1995 and the start of the Silicon Valley tech boom, when Musk is a geeky young South African battling to make his fortune while sleeping on the floor of his office and washing at the local YMCA.
In San Francisco, he begins his ascendancy, building and selling a major new internet technology business and becoming a multi-millionaire at just 28.
But after falling in love with glamorous up-and-coming British actress Talulah Riley and enjoying newfound success, Musk faces his first major challenge…
Episode two, meanwhile, which airs on Wednesday, October 19 at the same time, sees Musk working hard to revolutionise the electric car market and achieve his dream of taking mankind to Mars.
However, first he must weather a global financial crisis. As SpaceX is awarded a Nasa contract and starts to enjoy success, Tesla is haemorrhaging money. But where others see an impossible challenge, Musk sees opportunity – and many sleepless nights.
Details about the third episode are yet to be released.
The Elon Musk Show has been produced by the award-winning 72 Films, which has made hard-hitting TV series such as 9/11: One Day In America, Rise of the Nazis, and Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story.
Image credit: BBC/72 Films/Reuters
