
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 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
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
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 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
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
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 8: 1. Invaders Of The Isles
Revealing surprising stories of invasions around the British Isles. \n\nNick Crane explores how the remarkable history of Guernsey reveals both the risks and rewards of invasion ...
10-01-2020
BBC 2
Series 4 Reversions - Rottingdean And Volks Electric Railway
A look around the coast of the British Isles. Mark Horton visits Rottingdean to peek over Rudyard Kipling's garden wall.
01-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 7: 1. The Mysteries Of The Isles
Coast is back in the UK, with each episode featuring stories from different parts of the British Isles, taking viewers on a 'journey of the imagination' which explores the unive ...
02-04-2020
BBC 2
Series 9 - Winter
The team explore Britain's coast in winter. Nick Crane visits Cornwall, the storm central of Britain's coastline, and Neil Oliver attends Shetland's Viking Fire Festival.
17-07-2019
BBC 2