Whitstable to Isle of Wight

Synopsis

Coast takes a journey around the British Isles and also visits the shores of their European neighbours.

Beginning at the famous Oyster Festival in Whitstable, Neil Oliver ventures offshore to the remarkable Red Sands sea forts. Built as air defences in the Second World War, they went on to inspire the design of the first North Sea oil rigs. Neil also becomes a silent movie director as he films a scene from The Mayor of Casterbridge using an antique camera, to reveal how pioneers in Brighton taught the world to make movies long before Hollywood shot a frame.

In Dover, Alice Roberts relives the glamour days of the hovercraft crossing to France. She takes to the waves to learn how to fly a hovercraft and discovers the science behind this British invention. She also finds out what brought the cross-channel service to its untimely end. Miranda Krestovnikoff joins a 1,000-year-old battle between men and fish in Hastings, and shares tricks of the fishermen's trade, including eco-friendly nets.

Mark Horton visits Rottingdean to peek over Rudyard Kipling's garden wall and follow in the footsteps of Victorian celebrity hunters, before unearthing the history of a unique Victorian electric railway which ran underwater: Magnus Volk's bizarre and beautiful Daddy Long-Legs.

Nick Crane explores the geology of the Isle of Wight, England's biggest island. It's a unique time capsule containing clues to an epic journey that the British Isles have made around the Earth. Nick discovers dinosaur footprints, ancient chalk seabeds, and evidence of a 'continental car crash' between Africa and Britain millions of years ago, when the two landmasses were on the move.

Related Links

• Wikipedia: Whitstable (en.wikipedia.org)
• Underground Kent: Maunsell Sea Forts (www.undergroundkent.co.uk)
• BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight: Local History - Hovercraft history
• BBC Search+: Rudyard Kipling
• Volk's Electric Railway Association (www.volkselectricrailway.co.uk)
• Historic Rottingdean (www.rottingdean.uk.com)
• Wikipedia: Isle of Wight (en.wikipedia.org)

Credits

Presenter

Neil Oliver

Presenter

Alice Roberts

Presenter

Miranda Krestovnikoff

Presenter

Nicholas Crane

Presenter

Mark Horton

Producer

Steve Evanson

Executive Producer

William Lyons

Broadcasts

1. Tue 14 Jul 2009
   20:00
   BBC Two (except Northern Ireland (Analogue), Wales (Analogue))
2. Tue 14 Jul 2009
   20:00
   BBC HD
3. Sun 19 Jul 2009
   18:00
   BBC Two (except Northern Ireland (Analogue), Wales (Analogue))
4. Sun 19 Jul 2009
   18:00
   BBC HD
5. Wed 22 Jul 2009
   01:10
   BBC One (except Scotland, Wales)
6. Wed 4 Nov 2009
   19:00
   BBC Two (England, Northern Ireland, Wales only)