Brittany

Synopsis

The BAFTA-winning Coast journeys around the British Isles and beyond to see how shared seas unite us all.

Britain's strong bonds with its Celtic cousins across the English Channel in Brittany, or 'Little Britain' as the French think of it, are explored, as the programme visits brand-new territory.

Neil Oliver tours the province of Finistère, which is battered by some of the wildest waters in the world, meeting a lighthouse keeper made famous by one of the world's most reproduced photographs. The image shows him about to be swallowed up by mountainous seas, so how did he manage to survive? Neil also visits Île de Sein, a tiny 'island of heroes' which was honoured with a prestigious military award by President de Gaulle after the islanders took to their boats at the start of the Second World War to fight with the Free French forces. The last survivors relive these moving events.

Nick Crane joins the Onion Johnnies, who provide the stereotypical image of a Frenchman in stripy t-shirt, beret and on a bicycle laden with onions. For nearly 200 years these bulb sellers have pedalled their produce around the homes of Britain. Nick finds out what's so special about their onions and meets a Johnny who picked up a Geordie accent and married a Newcastle girl.

Alice Roberts reveals the life-saving chemical element that's locked away inside seaweed as she recreates the remarkable accidental discovery of iodine. At Carnac, Mark Horton moves among the mysterious lines of standing stones erected 1,000s of years before Stonehenge to investigate their age-old connection to Britain. Miranda Krestovnikoff dives for a seafood delicacy: she's in search of a rare mollusc with a beautiful shell that fine diners pay a fortune to eat.