BBC - Coast: Series 9 (2014)

Coast continues to uncover the secrets of our shores, through untold tales of explorers from as far apart as Cornwall and Australia; it reveals little-known gems, including a coastal walk that takes in the history of Britain; investigates the clandestine sex trade that scandalised Victorian Britain and decimated the Royal Navy; discovers how Greenwich became the global centre of sea navigation and reveals what becomes of our coast in winter. Coast also crosses the Atlantic to find out why Nova Scotia, in Canada, appealed to its Scottish settlers, and it ventures to the French channel coast to unearth its connection with the birth of Britain's Ordnance Survey maps.

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Part 1: The Channel
The team returns to explore more locations on UK shores and far beyond, beginning by examining stories from both sides of the English Channel. Nick Crane is on the French coast to experience the secret life of hilltop monastery Mont St Michel and visits the historic walled citadel of St Malo, where a network of sea forts foiled repeated raids by the Royal Navy. Neil Oliver investigates how the sinking of the troopship SS Mendi in 1917 became a potent symbol of racial inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, while Mark Horton reveals how 18th-century French mapmakers unwittingly gave birth to Britain's Ordnance Survey.


Part 2: Secret Paths to Hidden Treasures
The team explores secret paths around the shores of the British Isles. Nick Crane heads to Cape Wrath - the most north-westerly point of the UK mainland - to visit his favourite beach, and learns how the area was once home to Britain's smallest school and why this wild landscape had to be abandoned. Ruth Goodman reveals how a Victorian craze for collecting ferns drove genteel women to extraordinary lengths on the perilous paths along the sea cliffs of Devon, while Adam McIntosh follows a secret underwater path off the isle of Iona in search of green marble.


Part 3: The Explorers Coast
The team examines stories connected to explorers. In Cornwall Nick Crane examines 18th-century artist William Daniell's 10-year mission to produce illustrations for a book, takes to the sea in a replica of the UK's oldest-known boat and tells the tale of the first sailor to circumnavigate Britain some 2,400 years ago. Mark Horton reveals how Scotsman Lachlan Macquarie laid the foundations for the nation of Australia, while Tessa Dunlop discovers how the Pilgrim Fathers created the archetypal American celebration of Thanksgiving from a tradition they encountered in Holland.


Part 4: Offshore!
Nick Crane crosses the Atlantic to Nova Scotia to investigate why there was a flood of Scottish settlers to Canada two hundred years ago, while an archaeological dig also reveals the 400-year-old secrets of the first English colony in the North American country. Tessa Dunlop visits a radio network outside Rugby to explore a story from the Falklands War, while Miranda Krestovnikoff is in the Outer Hebrides to go in search of Britain's oldest puffin. Naval historian Nick Hewitt examines the history of the Nab Towers, which was positioned in the Straits of Dover to protect merchant shipping from German U-boats during the First World War.


Part 5: Sea and the City
Stories that connect cities to the sea. Nick Crane visits the east coast port of Immingham, finding out how it has been specially engineered to import the vast quantities of coal it handles. Tessa Dunlop discovers how Hitler's bombers could have drowned London, and possibly helped win the Second World War, by destroying the embankments that contain the River Thames - if not for a series of top-secret defensive schemes. Ruth Goodman investigates how the Victorian government introduced laws to detain women suspected of prostitution as the Navy's sailors fell prey to sexually transmitted diseases, and Mark Horton reveals how determining a ship's exact position at sea meant Greenwich became the epicentre of global sea navigation.


Part 6: Winter
The team explores how winter affects the coast, as Nick Crane visits Cornwall to reflect on the Penlee lifeboat disaster of December 1981, in which 16 people died. However, he also discovers that wild seas bring surprising benefits for farmers. Neil Oliver goes behind the scenes of the Viking Fire Festival on Shetland, and on St Kilda off the west coast of Scotland, Andy Torbet finds out why a feral flock of sheep battles to the death during the cold months. Mark Horton investigates the devastating impact of storms on small communities, and wildlife cameraman Richard Taylor-Jones captures a portrait of the creatures that make the Kent town of Margate their home for winter.