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This is Coast. | 0:00:08 | 0:00:09 | |
We're hunting out the secret life of our beaches. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:41 | |
It's no great shock that we love to share the sand | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
with four-legged friends. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
But while we may crave the comfort of companions, | 0:00:52 | 0:00:56 | |
some shy characters take flight at the first sight of strangers. | 0:00:56 | 0:01:03 | |
There's a wild side to our shores where we aren't welcome, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
like here, at Dornoch Firth. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
On golden sands, the seals enjoy a top-secret life | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
thanks to some powerful friends. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:20 | |
Zoologist and ex-soldier Andy Torbet is returning home | 0:01:22 | 0:01:26 | |
to have an explosive encounter on Scotland's most deadly beach. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:31 | |
The shore around here was my playground as a boy. | 0:01:37 | 0:01:39 | |
I loved to explore, but there's one site I never got to see. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:45 | |
There's a bit of beach that's out of bounds, | 0:01:45 | 0:01:47 | |
where even the locals are kept at bay. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:49 | |
It looks more like a battle zone than a beach, | 0:01:53 | 0:01:56 | |
and that's no accident. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:57 | |
This is Tain, an RAF firing range, where bomber pilots train for war. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
We used to use vehicles just like this one | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
when I was in the Forces, but this one hasn't been abandoned here, | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
it's been left here deliberately. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
This is no longer a mode of transport, it's now a target, | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
and if I was to wait any longer, I'd probably get a bomb | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
dropped on my head. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
For obvious reasons, the public are kept well away, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
but during a pause in the pretend hostilities | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
I've been given permission to explore this sandy battleground. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:44 | |
Very few people get to witness what goes on here, | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
but there are eyes watching. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
On a beach over there is a big group of seals. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
Just half a mile away, the seal pod seems relaxed enough. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:04 | |
They've picked this beach to raise their pups. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:08 | |
But what's the appeal of such a noisy spot? | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
How can seals bear to bask under the bombers? | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
To uncover the secret of this odd relationship, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:19 | |
I'm meeting Sean Twiss, who studies seal psychology. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
Ironically, we're taking cover. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
Seals seem OK with planes, but people spook them. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:32 | |
PLANE ROARS | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
So, Sean, I would not expect to find grey seals happily basking | 0:03:35 | 0:03:41 | |
in the sun right next to an RAF bombing range | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
with all that such stuff going on. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:45 | |
Why is it they can cope with this sort of disturbance? | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
Well, classic example they're... | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
Not even a head up in response to that. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
It happens so often it doesn't propose a threat to them. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
Why waste your energy | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
responding to something that's not a threat to you? | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
Do you think the bombing helps? Cos, I mean, it keeps people | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
away from the beach. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:03 | |
Certainly, I mean, because people | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
are effectively excluded from this beach, there's none of that | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
real threat to the seals of people walking down here with their dogs, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
so that's one of the reasons why they like to haul out. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
We're more of a threat to them as individual human beings | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
walking down this beach than any amount of aeroplanes. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
In fact, I think you can see a few heads coming up now | 0:04:21 | 0:04:23 | |
because actually the wind is taking our scent down towards them, | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
and they have a really good sense of smell | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
so that's starting to spook them, even much more than a plane. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
So my manly odour is more offensive to a seal than a bomb blast. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:37 | |
What can these sensitive souls be thinking of? | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
I still want to know but that'll have to wait a while. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
Now they've taken flight, it's a chance for me to do the same. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:50 | |
Nearby RAF Lossiemouth is the base for the bombers. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
I'm here to meet Flight Commander Brian James. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
So, why target the beach? | 0:05:03 | 0:05:04 | |
It allows us to train realistically for those operations | 0:05:07 | 0:05:10 | |
we are on at the moment, so I'll be looking at the scenery | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
and the terrain tactically with a view of hiding | 0:05:13 | 0:05:15 | |
behind any of the hills | 0:05:15 | 0:05:16 | |
to mask me from radar and it allows us to train in a safe environment. | 0:05:16 | 0:05:21 | |
We drop small ammunitions which are practice bombs to minimise | 0:05:23 | 0:05:26 | |
the effect on the environment, so although it has the same | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
flight characteristics of our larger weapons it has a very small charge, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
and the charge really is only used to put up a puff of smoke | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
so that the range can actually see where the weapon went. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
If we do drop the larger weapons cos we need to practise handling | 0:05:38 | 0:05:41 | |
the aeroplane with the sort of weight the weapons are, | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
then they are concrete with no explosive charge, minimising the effect on the environment. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
And do you think the seals are bothered by what you do? | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
I don't think they are, to be honest, they seem to lie there | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
yawning and scratching themselves, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:55 | |
I think they're quite used to us now! | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
I'm surprised these guys keep their cool | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
as they're being buzzed by bombers. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:07 | |
Why aren't they frightened? | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
Sean Twiss has a way to discover what a seal finds scary. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
One whiff of our scent made these slippery customers scarper, | 0:06:14 | 0:06:18 | |
so Sean had to devise a cunning plan to get closer to them. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
He's showing me film of those close encounters. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
A remote control robot vehicle was fitted with a camera. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:33 | |
It captured the response of different seals | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
to the same scary sound. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
MACHINE EMITS HIGH-PITCHED WAIL | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
We actually play a wolf call as a sort of natural sound, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
to illicit a kind of mild startled response. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
And we monitor the behaviour of the seal afterwards, | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
in particular how many times it checks its pup, | 0:06:52 | 0:06:54 | |
and what we find is that some mothers do a lot of that pup-checking behaviour, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:58 | |
are really attentive of their pups, and other mothers do very little of it. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:02 | |
Males, we get some that are very nervous, | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
others that are quite relaxed, we get differences in aggressiveness and boldness. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
And with the remote control vehicle, some will actually approach the vehicle... | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
GROWLS | 0:07:12 | 0:07:13 | |
..others will shy away from it. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
Anyone who's got a pet won't find this too surprising, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
we have to quantify it and find ways of actually measuring it, | 0:07:18 | 0:07:21 | |
particularly if we're talking about animals out in the wild. It's a very difficult thing to do. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
'These peaceful personalities let the nuisance go over their heads. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:33 | |
'More aggressive characters would probably give this beach a wide berth.' | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
'But even this placid bunch wouldn't let me get near on foot, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
'so the only way is up!' | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
'The bird's-eye view confirms the colony prefers planes to people. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:56 | |
'This is a popular spot.' | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
There's a good few hundred seals on the beach below us now. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
You can see the patches where they've been basking | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
and the trails they've left as they've crawled down to the sea. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
'Maybe these are the most laid-back seals in Britain, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
'or perhaps they'd rather have the noise than share their sands with anyone else.' | 0:08:12 | 0:08:17 | |
'Our journey continues | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
'And I can't resist a bit of detective work | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
'around Newport in Pembrokeshire.' | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
'Foreboding cliffs conceal isolated little coves. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:54 | |
'The only way to sneak in and out is by sea.' | 0:08:54 | 0:08:58 | |
'So, some 30 years ago, a fisherman was surprised to spy a stranger | 0:09:00 | 0:09:05 | |
'on one of these remote beaches.' | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
'The shifty character was standing guard over a stash of marine gear | 0:09:10 | 0:09:15 | |
'and powerful outboard engines.' | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
The stranger told the local fisherman | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
that the equipment he was guarding | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
was being tested for a top secret expedition to Greenland. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:28 | |
The waters of Cardigan Bay may be cold, but not that cold! | 0:09:28 | 0:09:33 | |
Time to call the cops. | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
The investigation splashed these quiet beaches | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
across the headlines in 1984 - | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
Wales at the heart of an international drugs ring. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
I'm heading back to the scene of the crime | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
with detectives Derek Davies, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
and Don Evans. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:57 | |
What did you think of the story | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
that these were supplies for an expedition to Greenland? | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
Well, to be perfectly honest, | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
we thought it might have been a wild herring really. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
It wasn't a story that we were likely to believe for very long. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:10 | |
No. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
Derek and Don knew something didn't smell right. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
30-odd years ago, | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
the police beached their boat where the stranger had been spotted, | 0:10:19 | 0:10:24 | |
and were surprised to find... | 0:10:24 | 0:10:26 | |
..nothing. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:28 | |
It was just a plain piece of beach | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
and with lumps of equipment stored on it | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
and covered with black tarpaulin. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
When we went to look further into this cleft here, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
one of the boys picked up one of these big pebbles for no good reason | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
and dropped it and it made a hollow sound. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:48 | |
So the boys scrabbled about | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
and they found a ship's hatch cover. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
Underneath the stones? | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
Underneath the stones. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:58 | |
Hidden below the pebbles was an entrance to a criminal underworld. | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
And under that, there was a seven-foot-deep cavern, | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
stretching 17 feet into the cleft of the rocks there. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:10 | |
They couldn't believe their eyes - | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
an Aladdin's cave of contraband, | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
carved out beneath the beach. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
The detectives threw all their resources | 0:11:24 | 0:11:27 | |
behind the investigation. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
Within months, | 0:11:30 | 0:11:31 | |
Don and Derek had put several big-time drug barons behind bars, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:36 | |
including Soeren Berg-Arnbak, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:39 | |
a master of disguise, known as Mr Rubber Face. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
He got eight years. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
It's thought the plan was to smuggle "Lebanese Gold" - cannabis resin - | 0:11:46 | 0:11:51 | |
into Britain using an inflatable boat, | 0:11:51 | 0:11:55 | |
stored deflated in the beach hideaway. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
SEAGULLS CAW | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
And what happened to all the equipment that was found? | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
Oh, well, we sold that. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
There's a brochure of the sale of the equipment that we found. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
Now, what's in here? | 0:12:09 | 0:12:10 | |
One, two, three, four... Six shovels, jump leads, | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
bulbs, batteries, drill bits, signalling mirrors... | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
Look at all this! | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven outboard engines. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
So, this wasn't just an amateur attempt at smuggling? | 0:12:22 | 0:12:25 | |
-No, no, no. -Very well planned. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
Very well planned and very well executed, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
very well detected, too! | 0:12:30 | 0:12:31 | |
A remote cove in Wales | 0:12:41 | 0:12:43 | |
was the perfect spot to squirrel away contraband, | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
but sprinkled all around our shore, | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
remarkable objects lie forgotten. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
Britain's beaches are the nation's attic, | 0:12:55 | 0:12:58 | |
where our secret history lies in storage | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
waiting to be re-discovered. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
Those in search of lost treasures from the Second World War, | 0:13:07 | 0:13:12 | |
head out to Aberlady Bay. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
Naval historian Nick Hewitt | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
is about to relive a rarely-told tale of derring-do. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:33 | |
I'm here to see one of the secret weapons of the Second World War. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:44 | |
I've been looking forward to this for years. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
Submerged by sea water at high tide, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
this skeleton is the carcass of a top-secret miniature submarine. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:57 | |
They were dubbed the X-Craft. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
That's absolutely amazing. It's still recognisably an X-Craft. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:04 | |
Can see that distinctive shape. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
Looks like the bones of a dinosaur. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
Looking down the length, they're just absolutely tiny. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:14 | |
Who on earth would want to go to sea in one of these? | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
It's extraordinary. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
Five men at a time would squeeze into these sardine cans, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:22 | |
sometimes for days on end. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
And inside here is the diesel engine, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
which you could only use on the surface | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
because air needs to come and go and vent exhaust gases. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:32 | |
There was an electric motor | 0:14:32 | 0:14:33 | |
which could be used when the boat was travelling submerged. | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
Look back in the boat, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:38 | |
you just get that sense of how terrifyingly small they are. | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
Midget subs like this were built to attack mighty battleships. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:47 | |
The tiny X-Craft humbled the pride of Hitler's Navy - | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
the Tirpitz. | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
-(ARCHIVE) -'Heavily coated in steel, | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
'she carried eight 16-inch guns, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
'and 28 others of formidable strength. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
'The Nazis bragged she was unsinkable.' | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
She was launched by Adolf Hitler himself. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
By 1943, she was positioned in a Norwegian Fjord, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
a potent threat to Allied shipping. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
To take on the Tirpitz, | 0:15:17 | 0:15:18 | |
the Navy rushed the X-Craft into production. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
The crews took enormous risks in these experimental mini subs, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
but they managed to release explosive charges | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
under the hull of the Tirpitz. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:31 | |
And as a result, the ship is so badly damaged, | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
it's effectively the end of her contribution to the Nazi war effort. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
The Tirpitz was crippled by the X-Craft | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
and the fjord became her tomb. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
Bombers finished her off. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
'The shadow of Nazi conquest shrinks from the north.' | 0:15:49 | 0:15:52 | |
These wrecks at Aberlady Bay | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
are X-Craft used to train more crews after the success | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
against Tirpitz. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:02 | |
I'm going to meet a veteran submariner | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
who tested these next-generation machines. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
Bill Morrison was just 19-years-old | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
when he first squeezed into a midget submarine. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
When you got down into it and couldn't stand upright, | 0:16:18 | 0:16:21 | |
and had to bend-up double and almost crawl about, | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
it was rather frightening, but exciting, nevertheless. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
You just felt you were working in a broom cupboard under the stairs, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:34 | |
everything was very close at hand, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
and you didn't have too much time to think about anything, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
just got on with your job and did it to the best of your ability. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
Bill Morrison is modest about his remarkable heroics, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:47 | |
but it's a miracle he's here. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:49 | |
Bill made a terrifying escape from an X-Craft, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
that earned him a place in the record books. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
200 feet underwater, he fought for his life. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
We were doing diving trials, | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
and all the time we were doing this, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:06 | |
there was a boom defence vessel also operating in Loch Striven, | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
and about 11 o'clock, we'd come up to a depth | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
of about 40 or 30 feet, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
and at the same time, there was a terrible grating noise, | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
and this grating noise was us, | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
we had come up underneath the keel of the boom defence vessel, | 0:17:21 | 0:17:24 | |
and then, at this million-to-one chance, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
she had finished her job, decided to start up her engines, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
and she started up her engines, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:33 | |
and the propeller ripped a huge hole in our pressure hull, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:37 | |
and a column of water about 12 inches broad | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
came pouring into the control room. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
WATER GUSHES | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
And ERA Swatten, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
he stuck his head and shoulders into the escape tube chamber with me, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
and was trying to force open the hatch, but couldn't, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
and I was breathing the last of the air | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
in the corner of the escape chamber, | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
which had, by this time, been compressed to the depth we were at, | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
which was about 35 fathoms. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
I was breathing my last. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
Suddenly, the boat righted itself | 0:18:07 | 0:18:08 | |
and the hatch flew open, | 0:18:08 | 0:18:12 | |
and we both shot up, we were both jammed in the hatch, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
we were both stuck, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
so I extricated myself and pushed him out, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
and then, the last thing I remember was coming up, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
knowing I was rising, | 0:18:23 | 0:18:24 | |
trying to hold my breath, but the water was... | 0:18:24 | 0:18:26 | |
Bubbles were pouring out of my mouth, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:28 | |
and that's the last I remember. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:30 | |
Bill was picked up by the boat that hit his X-Craft. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
His unaided escape from a submarine over 200 feet underwater, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:44 | |
is still the only one on record. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
Three of Bill's crew died that day | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
in March 1945. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:52 | |
After the war, their job done, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:57 | |
the X-Craft were decommissioned. | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
Once so vital, now scrap metal. | 0:18:59 | 0:19:03 | |
Their final battle was with the RAF, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
in target practice, here at Aberlady Bay... | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
..their secrets sinking into the sand | 0:19:11 | 0:19:13 | |
with every bomb blast. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:15 | |
So, Bill, how does it make you feel, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
thinking about those two XT craft lying forgotten on that beach in Aberlady? | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Yes, it's a pity that people don't know enough about them | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
and why they are there and what they are, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
because they did fulfil a very important part during the war. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:39 | |
It's nice that there's still something of them to be seen and remembered. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:44 | |
We all like to leave our mark on the beach. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
Some have left a lasting impression which you can't miss at Dungeness. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:01 | |
MUSIC: "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
All sorts of odd structures have sprouted up | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
from the pebbles over the years. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
Within a stone's throw of the nuclear power plant | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
lie relics from the early railways that found a new lease of life. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:18 | |
When times were hard in the 1920s, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:22 | |
old train carriages were converted into compact holiday homes. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
And they're still standing small on the shingle. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
Looks like this one's had a few mod cons attached. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:36 | |
-Hello, Paddy. -Hello there. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
This is very Robinson Crusoe. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
-Welcome aboard. -Thank you. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
Come through, please. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
So here we are in the railway carriage. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
All aboard, the train now leaving platform Dungeness! | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
-It's fantastic. -That's correct. yeah. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:55 | |
There may be a small delay of 120 years. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:58 | |
How much do you know about this original railway carriage? | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
Well, it's an 1880s non-smoking first-class Pullman from the New Cross line. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:06 | |
So, once upon a time, | 0:21:06 | 0:21:07 | |
-this was chuntering through suburban London. -Absolutely. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
What's it like living in a railway carriage on one of the biggest beaches in Britain? | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
Well, it's very freeing because we look out in the widescreen style | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
at an ever-evolving landscape of clouds and plants and flora, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
and we have a fantastic lilac time. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:29 | |
They call it 'the hum' here where there's a pinkish light | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
that interferes with the light that's bounced up from the stones. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
You never get used to that. That is beautiful. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
You are very exposed here, aren't you? | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
I mean, the next bit of land is France. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:43 | |
-It is. -And there's nothing to interrupt the wind, the gales, | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
that come charging out of the English Channel? | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
That's right. Well, you know, you want to feel that you exist within a landscape, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
not simply glimpsing it on the way by. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
This otherworldly view | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
is tailor-made for an artist like Paddy. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
The secret life of the beach inspires his paintings. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
Today, the paintbrushes have been put aside. | 0:22:10 | 0:22:14 | |
He's about to discover if his latest lino print will make the grade. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:19 | |
And now, the thing you never get bored of, because anticipation... | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
Do you still get a thrill when you lift to see if it works out? | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
Every time because you don't want to waste the paper. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
-You love the paper. -Yeah. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:32 | |
So here we go. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:34 | |
Paddy, that's fantastic. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
Not totally perfect, but close. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
This seems to me to be a definitive Dungeness image of the shack, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:46 | |
-the windblown shack about to collapse. -Absolutely. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
These sheds are a kind of witness to the passage of time, | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
fishing families, the way that the beach takes things back. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:02 | |
I like to see marks of human endeavour. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:07 | |
And there are no boundaries, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:09 | |
or there don't seem to be any boundaries here. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
There are very few fences. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
You can all wander at will across this vast open space. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:16 | |
It is a beach and a beach is for people, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
so you have a kind of notional boundary of someone's right to privacy, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
but the rest of the beach is yours to wander upon. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
Work, rest and play are all part of Britain's beach life. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:37 | |
Whether you want to lounge on the sand | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
or explore its secrets. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
Beaches are where we come to feel the coast, | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
feel the ocean between our toes, | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
and listen to stories that go back billions of years - | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
our island stories. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:03 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:24:08 | 0:24:16 |