Coast Catch up, Series 4: 2. France: Cap Gris-Nez to Mont Saint-Michel on BBC 2

Coast

Series 4: 2. France: Cap Gris-Nez to Mont Saint-Michel

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

Most recent episodes of Coast

Coast

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

All episodes

Coast

Series 8 Reversions: 13. The Joy Of Coast

16-01-2025

BBC 2

All episodes

Coast

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

Coast

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

Coast

Shorts: 89. Snowdonia To The Menai Straits

10-11-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Coast

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

Coast

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