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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.
BBC Two
84
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. It is Britain's front line.
Jul 22, 2005
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 a candle; and Miranda comes face to face with a shark!
Jul 24, 2005
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 Alice gets acquainted with the Red Lady of Paviland.
Jul 29, 2005
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 Straits, to examine the bridges across to Anglesey.
Jul 31, 2005
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.
Aug 5, 2005
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 of a Spanish Armada treasure ship.
Aug 7, 2005
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 only with a 500 year guide book.
Aug 12, 2005
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 life in Scapa Flow; whilst Alice visits the Dounreay reactor.
Aug 14, 2005
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 reflects on the history of whaling in Dundee.
Aug 19, 2005
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 close and personal with grey seals.
Aug 21, 2005
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 using stale urine!
Aug 26, 2005
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 Trafalgar 200 examining an eye witness account of the battle.
Aug 28, 2005
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.
Sep 2, 2005
Dec 25, 2005
Presenter
