episodes

WHAT'S NEW

WHAT'S NEW

Loss, love and the struggle to stay alive in 1912

Jon explains his decision to write an historical novel, A Spring Marrying. He discovered the extraordinary history of the sail trawlers working off the English coast before 1939 whilst making a film for C4. It was the men who crewed them that fascinated him the most. Down in Brixham, Devon, they had four crew – skipper, mate, deckhand, and a cookie who was often only 12 or so. Theirs was an unremitting routine. Danger and death were never far away: it was the most dangerous job in the land. Yet they earned a reputation as supreme, quietly proud seamen, religious, brilliantly able to navigate without charts and survive just about anything. Except, maybe, falling in love with the town’s most complicated young woman.



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The series we are currently broadcasting is shown first.
After that, in reverse chronological order - from the present day to 1400 - comes a huge range of subjects. Anywhere a story has got stuck in our collective memory but looks - to us - like it would benefit from a re-visit. These fresh reinterpretations take time to research, argue and record.
You’ll find that each subject page contains a playlist, synopses, photos and read on.

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