Catch up TV

This episode is currently not available.

Series 7 Reversions: 10. The Secret Life of Beaches 1



Coast explores the glorious diversity and endless delights offered by our beaches. The British Isles's stunning range of sand, shingle and rock formations creates some wonderful, unique havens for wildlife and opens up surprising possibilities for human endeavour and outright pleasure as well as secrets from Britain's prehistoric past. Now the Coast team can reveal these in The Secret Life of Beaches.\n\nNick Crane digs deep to discover what it is like to live on Britain's most unusual beach, the eerily beautiful vast shingle spit at Dungeness in Kent. Nick discovers how this pebble heaven was formed and why it is still growing. A staggering five trillion pebbles offer a stony home to thriving communities of animals and people, who relish the freedom to express themselves in the wide, open, wild spaces.\n\nOn the glorious shores of Jersey, Hermione Cockburn discovers the secret of making spectacular statements in sand as she joins the world's best beach artists creating massive art installations along some of the UK's most spectacular shoreline. How can anyone begin to take in these stunning artistic creations, stretched not on canvas but across entire beaches? There's nothing for it but for Hermione to take to the air in a helicopter.\n\nThe Bible warns of the folly of trying to build a house on shifting sands, but Tessa Dunlop learns the extraordinary engineering secrets behind building one of Europe's biggest steelworks on a vast beach at Port Talbot in south Wales. As with the cathedrals of old, constructing this huge steelworks has been the work of generations. Since work began, in 1947, it has been continually modified and extended - but why build this steel behemoth on a beach in the first place? And what stops it sinking?

Source: BBC 2

Most recent episodes of Coast

Coast

Coast - Series 7 Reversions: 5. Life Beyond The Edge 2

Series 7 Reversions: 5. Life Beyond The Edge 2

03-04-2026

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 7 Reversions: 8. The Hidden History Of Harbours 2

Series 7 Reversions: 8. The Hidden History Of Harbours 2

A look at the hidden history of harbours, which, before air travel, were Britain's gateways to global adventure. There are more than a thousand ports, big and small, around the ...

06-02-2026

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: 13. The Joy Of Coast

Series 8 Reversions: 13. The Joy Of Coast

29-11-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: Episode 15

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.

23-09-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: 5. All At Sea

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: Episode 12

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Shorts: 89. Snowdonia To The Menai Straits

Shorts: 89. Snowdonia To The Menai Straits

10-11-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 9 - Offshore!

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 4 Reversions: 14. Brighton's Early Cinema

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: 14. Rivers And Seas Collide 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

All episodes

BBC 2

Most popular episodes of Coast

Coast

Coast - Series 9 - Offshore!

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 4: 3. Land's End To Porthcawl

Series 4: 3. Land's End To Porthcawl

The series continues with a journey from Cornwall to South Wales.\n\nNeil Oliver casts his own bronze sword and discovers how demand for tin 3,500 years ago put Cornwall at the ...

15-07-2018

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Coast Australia - Tasmania

Coast Australia - Tasmania

Series exploring Australia's coastline. Neil Oliver probes Port Arthur's harsh penal history, while Brendan Moar examines the grip of lighthouse life on a remote island.

04-06-2014

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Shorts: 85. Slapton Sands

Shorts: 85. Slapton Sands

16-08-2016

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 4 Reversions - Raf Valley

Series 4 Reversions - Raf Valley

At RAF Valley in Anglesey, Neil Oliver discovers if he's got the 'right stuff' to fly fighter jets as he takes to the sky with an instructor from the RAF's pilot factory.

09-07-2014

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Shorts: 64. The Old Man Of Hoy

Shorts: 64. The Old Man Of Hoy

Neil Oliver explains the history, climb and spectacular views of the Old Man of Hoy. At 450 feet tall, it is one of the most impressive sea stacks in the UK.

22-03-2016

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 7 Reversions - The Mysteries Of The Isles

Series 7 Reversions - The Mysteries Of The Isles

Coast returns to the UK to explore the universal themes that bind everyone together. Nick Crane begins by signing on as a deckhand with a tall ship.

29-08-2014

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 8 Reversions: 14. Rivers And Seas Collide 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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 6 - Wales: Border To Border

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

All episodes

BBC 2

Coast

Coast - Series 5 Reversions: 15. Northern Jutland

Series 5 Reversions: 15. Northern Jutland

14-11-2014

BBC 2

All episodes

BBC 2

© 2026 - Catchupplayer.co.uk