Alice discovers 5,000 year old footprints on the beach; whilst Nick investigates our worst lifeboat disaster; Mark is on the track of the Roman conquest of Northern Europe in Maryport and Neil ventures onto the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay.
Overview
The nation's love affair with the coast will be reawakened for this entertaining and ambitious exploration of the entire UK coastline. Every part of the 9,000-mile coast is covered to explore how we've shaped it - and how it shapes us. Hosted by a team of history and geography experts who investigate everything from life on a nuclear submarine; rebuilding the Titanic using computer images; the story behind the first Butlins holiday camp; and the birth of the Severn Bore. Discover the curious, sometimes dysfunctional, relationship between the British and the seas.
Episodes
S01E01 The Frontline: Dover To Exmouth
July 22, 2005 60 min
Traditionally the South coast of England is where we've fought our battles, and defended ourselves. A hop, skip and a jump away from the continent, divided only by the narrow stretch of the English Channel....
Dr Alice Roberts investigates how greed led to a village being washed into the sea; Nick unearths the history of slavery in Plymouth; while Neil and Mark try to wreck a ship with nothing but...
South Wales has the second highest tidal range in the world. It is the tidal surge that creates the Severn Bore: Nick follows the wave upstream; whilst Neil explores the history of Cardiff coal; and...
S01E04 The Travellers Coast: Cardigan Bay To The Dee
July 31, 2005 60 min
Neil discovers the story of a Welsh Atlantis lost beneath the waves; Miranda goes in search of leatherback turtles; whilst Alice descends into the caves of Great Orme and Nick canoes in the treacherous Menai...
Alice discovers 5,000 year old footprints on the beach; whilst Nick investigates our worst lifeboat disaster; Mark is on the track of the Roman conquest of Northern Europe in Maryport and Neil ventures onto the...
S01E06 The Troubled Coast: The Northern Ireland Coast
August 7, 2005 60 min
Nick investigates how the building of the Antrim Coast mirrors the troubled history of the province; Neil uses computer imagery to rebuild the Titanic; Alice heads to the Giants Causeway and Mark explores the wreck...
S01E07 Islands And Inlets: West Coast Of Scotland And Western Isles
August 12, 2005 60 min
Neil joins the crew of the trident submarine HMS Vanguard; Miranda goes hunting for Minke whales; whilst Mark and Neil recreate the inter island rocket mail service; and Nick sails the beautiful Western Isles armed...
Nick takes part in a NATO exercise at the Cape Wrath bombing range; Neil meets the descendants of the people displaced by the Highland Clearances; and the survivors of the worst loss of British Naval...
S01E09 The Working Coast: John O'Groats To Berwick
August 19, 2005 60 min
Miranda heads to the Moray Firth, home to bottle nosed dolphins; Nick investigates the impact of the North Sea oil industry; whilst Neil meets a fishing family in Fraserburgh, facing a bleak future; and Alice...
Nick explores the holy island of Lindisfarne; Alice helps rebuild Britain's first house in Howick; whilst Neil examines the tensions in South Shields that led to race riots in the 1930s and Miranda gets up...
S01E11 The Inventive Coast: Robin Hood's Bay To The Wash
August 26, 2005 60 min
Nick retraces the steps of smugglers in Robin Hoods Bay; Neil goes to the first Butlins Holiday camp in Skegness; whilst Mark sets sail in a recreated bronze age boat; and Alice recreates alum crystals...
Nick investigates the freak floods of 1953; Alice explores the landbridge which joined us to the continent; whilst Nick meets Peter Boggis, a man trying to save his home from the sea; and Neil celebrates...
The final programme examines coastal issues highlighted in earlier episodes: sea level rise and erosion; the health of our seas and wildlife, power generation; and access to our coast; as well as development.