For the first time, Coast is in France on a journey following the shoreline of Pas de Calais, Picardy and Normandy to discover the surprisingly close connections to our neighbours across the English channel.\n\nOn Cap Gris-Nez (the Grey Nose), the closest point between Britain and France, Neil Oliver explores the hidden remains of a fortress built by Henry VIII in a desperate attempt to keep an English toehold on French soil. Dick Strawbridge unearths the story behind the ultra-secret map that stopped the D-Day landings sinking into the sands of Normandy. Dick meets 89-year-old veteran Royal Engineer Major-General Logan Scott-Bowden, who on New Year's Eve 1943 - a full six months before the invasion - swam onto the D-day beaches in the dead of night to take sand samples from under the noses of the Nazis.\n\nMiranda Krestovnikoff has a close encounter with the bats that have set up home in bunkers abandoned by the German army. Mark Horton discovers how William the Conqueror taught the English the art of constructing castles, and why William looked to Normandy for the stone to build the Tower of London.\n\nAmateur artist Alice Roberts packs her paints for a lesson in how to become an instant impressionist; she tries to capture the spectacular chalk cliffs at Etretat on canvas, using the impressionist style pioneered by Claude Monet on this stretch of the French coast. Nick Crane explores the white cliffs of France and finds evidence for the catastrophic 'megaflood' that separated Britain from the continent half a million years ago. \n\nFinally, Dick Strawbridge learns how a revolutionary lens, invented by Normandy-born Augustin Fresnel, is now used the world over because it made lighthouses brighter and lighter.
Source: BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: Episode 15
On their journey around the coast of the United Kingdom, the team look at the secret life of the sea and how it shapes our cliffs.
17-01-2025
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: 5. All At Sea
The coast team are all at sea as they head offshore to explore surprising stories.
01-12-2024
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: Episode 12
The Coast team explores some of the most spectacular and scary sea cliffs in Britain.
30-11-2024
BBC 2
Series 9 - Offshore!
Coast embarks on its first adventure to North America, exploring British connections far offshore and surprising stories in the waters just off Britain's shoreline.
30-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 4 Reversions: 14. Brighton's Early Cinema
Neil Oliver 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 ma ...
09-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: 14. Rivers And Seas Collide 2
The Coast team visit the most dynamic and dramatic of our waterways to discover surprising stories that emerge where rivers and seas collide.
07-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: Episode 19
The team are 'all at sea', as they head offshore to explore surprising stories.
06-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 4 Reversions - The Needles: Isle Of Wight
Nicholas Crane crosses the Solent to find out what's happened to England's largest island - the Isle of Wight.
02-05-2024
BBC 2
Shorts: 72. John Paul Jones At Whitehaven
Neil Oliver discovers why a delegation from the US Navy is sent over to the port of Whitehaven every year to honour the Scot John Paul Jones.
26-02-2016
BBC 2
Series 9 - The Channel
The team explore stories on both sides of the English Channel. Nick Crane visits Mont St Michel and Mark Horton looks at the origins of Britain's Ordnance Survey.
15-01-2023
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: 6. The Secret Life Of Sea Cliffs 2
The Coast team explores some of the most spectacular and scary sea cliffs in Britain.
18-03-2019
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: Episode 15
On their journey around the coast of the United Kingdom, the team look at the secret life of the sea and how it shapes our cliffs.
17-01-2025
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: 14. Rivers And Seas Collide 2
The Coast team visit the most dynamic and dramatic of our waterways to discover surprising stories that emerge where rivers and seas collide.
07-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 6 - Wales: Border To Border
A journey around the coast of the United Kingdom, uncovering stories that have made us the island nation we are today.
07-02-2019
BBC 2
Series 8 Reversions: 5. All At Sea
The coast team are all at sea as they head offshore to explore surprising stories.
01-12-2024
BBC 2