In the first part of this series from the Money Programme Sir Gerry Robinson, the UK’s foremost business trouble-shooter, takes a look under the bonnet of Britain’s troubled car industry.

Barely a week goes by without more bad news from Britain’s car makers. From closure to halting production lines, forced layoffs and begging for bailouts, the last six months have brought the industry to its knees.

Sir Gerry meets the bosses of some of Britain’s biggest and most efficient car factories. He finds out how they are coping in the heat of the credit crunch, looking at what they need to do to take their business out of the slump and lay their claim to a place in the UK economy post-recession.

Sir Gerry meets car salesmen at the front line dealing with the worst sales figures in UK history and joins workers on the Sunderland production line to get a view from the shop floor.

He test drives a sleek UK-made electric sports car – and offers his own ideas for jump-starting the British car business. Sir Gerry meets inventor and businessman James Dyson to discuss what the experience of motor manufacturing reveals about the bigger industrial sector in the UK and its place in the future economy of Britain.

Sir Gerry also meets the Secretary of State for Business, Lord Mandelson, to find out what the government is doing to help and ask what future he has planned for this ailing industry.

Tuesday 9 June
10.00-10.30pm BBC TWO