About this season
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 (14)
1. The Frontline: Dover To Exmouth
Aired 22 July 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. It is Britain's front line.
2. The Wild West: Exmouth To Bristol
Aired 24 July 2005 • 60 min
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!
3. Times and Tides: Bristol To Cardigan Bay
Aired 29 July 2005 • 60 min
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.
4. The Travellers Coast: Cardigan Bay To The Dee
Aired 31 July 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 Straits, to examine the bridges across to Anglesey.
5. Shifting Sands: Liverpool To Solway Firth
Aired 5 August 2005 • 60 min
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.
6. The Troubled Coast: The Northern Ireland Coast
Aired 7 August 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 of a Spanish Armada treasure ship.
7. Islands And Inlets: West Coast Of Scotland And Western Isles
Aired 12 August 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 only with a 500 year guide book.
8. Life On The Edge: Cape Wrath To Orkney
Aired 14 August 2005 • 60 min
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.
9. The Working Coast: John O'Groats To Berwick
Aired 19 August 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 reflects on the history of whaling in Dundee.
10. The Forgotten Coast: Berwick To Whitby
Aired 21 August 2005 • 60 min
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.
11. The Inventive Coast: Robin Hood's Bay To The Wash
Aired 26 August 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 using stale urine!
12. The Vanishing Coast: The Wash To Dover
Aired 28 August 2005 • 60 min
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.
13. The Future Coast
Aired 2 September 2005 • 60 min
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.
14. Coast Revisited: West of Scotland - Dover
Aired 25 December 2005 • 60 min