Tx: 8pm, BBC
Two, Sunday May 13 2007

 
The BAFTA and VLV award-winning
series Coast, co-produced by The Open University, returns to BBC TWO
for the third time with eight brand-new episodes which will take in
even more wonderful sights and stories from the length and breadth of
the UK, Ireland and islands.

For the first time,
the team will be visiting the northern-most tip of the British Isles –
Shetland, the continental charms of the Channel Islands and the
fiercely independent Isle of Man. They will explore the spectacular
south west of Ireland for the first time as well as returning to some
favourite old haunts to tell new stories such as the south of England’s
fabulous Jurassic Coast which features some of the most expensive
coastal property in the world and the south coast of Wales including
the Gower Peninsula, the first area of outstanding natural beauty in
Britain. The team travel to East Anglia and the east coast of Scotland
where the team investigate Edinburgh’s many links to the coast.

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Neil
Oliver remains the main presenter for the final series and will again
be joined by Nick Crane, Dr Alice Roberts, Miranda Krestovnikoff and
Mark Horton. The team will also be joined in the latest leg of their
journey by Hermione Cockburn of The Open University and engineer Dick
Strawbridge.

Hermione Cockburn says: “Working on
Coast has been absolutely brilliant – the reception from the public
wherever we were filming was so warm and friendly, there’s a lot of
goodwill towards the series. In Blackpool, we needed to cross a
building site with no entry signs everywhere but one mention of Coast
and we were personally escorted through by the site manager!

“One of the stories I present is about secret WW2
listening stations on the Norfolk coast. It was fascinating to
experiment with the technology behind these stations with the help of
scientists from the OU.  But it was even more enthralling to
meet an elderly woman, Joy Hale, who’d actually worked there and hear
her stories firsthand. Like Joy, my grandmother had been a WREN but had
worked as a cipher officer – the next link in the chain of intelligence
gathering. It was a poignant story to present and I’m pleased that
almost forgotten pieces of history like this will be heard by a wider
audience and preserved by Coast.”

Dr Alice
Roberts says: “In the new series, my favourite story is the excavation
at Sandwick Bay in Shetland. I camped on the beach in my camper van,
and was privileged to take a look at the Iron Age skeleton that had
been discovered on the site.”
Miranda Krestovnikoff says:
“My favourite coastal location from filming series 3 has to be the
Guliot caves in Sark. These gems are something I might explore as a
diver – rocks encrusted in jewel anemones of all different colours –
but on a few rare days a year when the tides are exceptionally low, you
can – with great difficulty – access these sunken treasures for a few
precious hours.  I went with a scientist who has been visiting
them for the last 50 years or so and we were accompanied by a
four-strong team of local firemen – such was the difficulty of
accessing the caves.  It took a few hours to make our decent
down a sheer cliff and across the rocks and we only had a short hour in
which to film.  It was like being inside a sweet shop – the
walls were dripping with brightly coloured anemones with barely an inch
of exposed rock. A truly memorable experience.”

George Revill, Senior Lecturer in Geography with The Open
University and lead academic for the series said: “Our enduring
fascination for the sea, seaside and shoreline is clearly reflected in
the tremendous popular success of Coast series one and two. The coast
has been economically, socially and culturally vital for many
generations living in the British Isles and it presents us with a
wealth of ecosystems and habitats on which we are all dependent.

“The coast line harbours many stories which shed light
on how we live, how we use and value our environment and how the land
in which we live has been created through millennia of physical change.
Coast has drawn on this rich heritage and in the process, we hope that
it will encourage and energise interest in the fragile nature and
contested uses of coastal environments.”

There
are a series of essays on some of the issues surrounding the coast in
the UK and Ireland with more to come at http://www.open2.net/coast

The Open University has also produced a free map for
viewers to follow the progress of the series as it traverses the UK and
Ireland. It also has interesting facts and useful information for
anybody inspired to go and explore their own piece of coast!
 
The map can be obtained by calling +(44)
8700 900 7788.

There will also be a series of
interactive Coast events at the following venues on the dates show.
Please check with the venues or Open2.net for further details.
•   
BELFAST       
Castle Espie    July 24/25
•   
PLYMOUTH     National Marine
Aquarium    July 30/31
•   
CARDIFF       
National Museum of Wales    August 4/5
•   
ABERDEEN     Maritime
Museum       
August 9/10
•    GREAT
YARMOUTH    Time and Tide
Museum    August 16/17
•    HULL   
        
The Deep       
    August 23/24
•    SUNDERLAND National Glass
Centre       
August 30/31

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