Coast: The Channel

SYNOPSIS

New series. The team returns to explore more locations on UK shores and far beyond, beginning by examining stories from both sides of the English Channel. Nick Crane is on the French coast to experience the secret life of hilltop monastery Mont St Michel and visits the historic walled citadel of St Malo, where a network of sea forts foiled repeated raids by the Royal Navy. Neil Oliver investigates how the sinking of the troopship SS Mendi in 1917 became a potent symbol of racial inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, while Mark Horton reveals how 18th-century French mapmakers unwittingly gave birth to Britain's Ordnance Survey.