BBC - Coast Series 8 (2013) Part 1 Invaders of the Isles

Coast Series 8

Coast, continues to explore the edge of our lives, the coastline that marries us to the sea. Through a history of assault from Nazi Germany, freshwater voles and the infamous Guernsey Privateers; the workers’ coast of shipbuilders, fishermen and seaside entertainers; the joys of sunbathing and the history of Thomas Cook; the magnificent estuaries of the Firth of Forth, the Severn and the Thames; this is the history of Britain as told from cliff to sea. Nick Crane is joined by a team of expert presenters including Neil Oliver, Miranda Krestovnikoff, Mark Horton, Tessa Dunlop, Andy Torbet, Ian McMillan, Ruth Goodman, Nick Hewitt and newcomers Sarah Beynon and Cassie Newland as they explore the riches to be found along our Coast.

Part 1: Invaders of the Isles
Nick Crane explores how the remarkable history of Guernsey reveals both the risks and rewards of invasion. What will Nick discover as he opens up a German bunker that has been sealed since the end of the war? Nick also hears very different stories of the occupation from two survivors; a girl evacuated to England who became a pen-pal of Eleanor Roosevelt, and a boy left on Guernsey who played dangerous pranks on the invading German army. Nick also revisits the Napoleonic wars and learns how the islanders turned threat of invasion into a money-making opportunity - the Guernsey privateers. Tessa Dunlop visits Norfolk to relive the forgotten Zeppelin blitz on Britain during the First World War, which began at Great Yarmouth in January 1915 when the first Britons were killed in an air raid. Ruth Goodman joins the friendly invasion of the Isle of Man by thousands of bikers for the annual TT races. How did this small island become home to the most dangerous road race on earth? On a tiny rocky outcrop in seas off western Scotland, Andy Torbet encounters remarkable animal invaders - water voles who are usually confined to mainland Britain

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