0:00:01 > 0:00:03BBC Four Collections -
0:00:03 > 0:00:06specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.
0:00:55 > 0:01:00Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04MUSIC: "Sea Symphony (No. 1)" by Ralph Vaughan Williams
0:01:06 > 0:01:11# Behold
0:01:11 > 0:01:16# The sea
0:01:16 > 0:01:18# Itself
0:01:30 > 0:01:36# And on its limitless, heaving breast
0:01:36 > 0:01:42# The ships
0:01:42 > 0:01:46# See, where their white sails
0:01:46 > 0:01:49# Bellying in the wind
0:01:49 > 0:01:54# See, where their white sails
0:01:54 > 0:02:01# Their white sails
0:02:01 > 0:02:07# Speckle the green and blue
0:02:07 > 0:02:12# See, the steamers
0:02:12 > 0:02:15# The steamers
0:02:15 > 0:02:18# Coming and going
0:02:20 > 0:02:24# Steaming
0:02:24 > 0:02:28# In or out of port
0:02:32 > 0:02:39# See
0:02:39 > 0:02:42# Dusky and undulating
0:02:42 > 0:02:45# See
0:02:45 > 0:02:50# See, the long pennants of smoke
0:03:01 > 0:03:07# Behold
0:03:07 > 0:03:12# The sea
0:03:12 > 0:03:18# Itself
0:03:20 > 0:03:24# And on
0:03:24 > 0:03:27# Its limitless,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31# Heaving
0:03:31 > 0:03:35# Breast
0:03:35 > 0:03:39# The ships... #
0:03:45 > 0:03:48They feared it most who knew best
0:03:48 > 0:03:51The sea that hits the rocky west
0:03:51 > 0:03:54To merchantmen it might bring wealth
0:03:54 > 0:03:57But it was dangerous to health
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Far better live inland, and warm
0:04:00 > 0:04:03Out of the perilous wind and storm
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Safe from fresh air and suchlike harm
0:04:07 > 0:04:11In sheltered mansion, cot or farm
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Quality sent its sons and daughters
0:04:14 > 0:04:17In search of health to inland waters
0:04:17 > 0:04:20To Roman Bath or Cheltenham Spa
0:04:20 > 0:04:23Where the Chalybeate fountains are.
0:04:24 > 0:04:31To Cheltenham also came George III to be cured of biliousness,
0:04:31 > 0:04:37until his physicians advised him to take the sea-bathing cure in Dorset.
0:04:42 > 0:04:47So in July 1789 he went to Weymouth.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52It was then an unimportant fishing port, full of smugglers.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58The King stayed in a house belonging to his brother,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00the Duke of Gloucester.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04A statue on the front commemorates his visit.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08"God Save the King" on ribbons was hung on bathing machines,
0:05:08 > 0:05:13on the bonnets of the ladies, around the waists of the girls.
0:05:13 > 0:05:20Fanny Burney wrote, "The King bathes, and with great success.
0:05:20 > 0:05:26"A machine follows the Royal one into the sea, filled with fiddlers,
0:05:26 > 0:05:31"who play God Save the King as His Majesty takes his plunge."
0:05:31 > 0:05:33MUSIC PLAYS: "God Save The King"
0:05:45 > 0:05:49The country rejoiced in the King's recovery.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53The sea was no longer unfashionable.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Moreover it was healthy.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Where the monarch led, his subjects followed.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09To Lyme Regis, for instance, also in Dorset,
0:06:09 > 0:06:14came the genteel characters of Jane Austen's Persuasion.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24It was when jumping down on the Lower Cobb at Lyme -
0:06:24 > 0:06:29the Cobb is that stone wall which juts into the sea -
0:06:29 > 0:06:34that Louisa Musgrove, you will remember, sprained her ankle,
0:06:34 > 0:06:39closed her eyes and was taken by her companions to be lifeless.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45"Rub her hands, rub her temples. Here are salts - take them, take them."
0:06:48 > 0:06:54Grander folk went further west, to Sidmouth in south Devon.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59The Grand Duchess Helene of Russia set her double eagle
0:06:59 > 0:07:01there on Fortfield Terrace,
0:07:01 > 0:07:07whose cheerful stucco front looks on to a cricket ground
0:07:07 > 0:07:12and the cricket ground is swept by breezes of the English Channel.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22The wars against Napoleon stopped people going abroad -
0:07:22 > 0:07:25hence resorts like this.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Sidmouth is a sort of Cheltenham-on-Sea,
0:07:28 > 0:07:34the sea quite often as calm and gentle as the Thames.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38Behind that comely row of sunny lodgings,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42ornamental cottages were built, by men of means,
0:07:42 > 0:07:47out of sight of the water but within sound of the shingle shore.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54It was to Sidmouth that a younger brother of George IV came
0:07:54 > 0:07:57with his wife and infant daughter.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59He was the Duke of Kent.
0:07:59 > 0:08:04He despised the vulgarities of his brother's Brighton.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08He liked the country and the rock-strewn shore.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21One day in 1820
0:08:21 > 0:08:25he got his feet wet here at Sidmouth,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28contracted pneumonia and died -
0:08:28 > 0:08:31there, in that ornamental cottage
0:08:31 > 0:08:35he'd built for himself, his wife and daughter -
0:08:35 > 0:08:39his daughter, Princess Victoria.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Could it have been her cradle memories of this southern shore
0:08:47 > 0:08:51that made Victoria, later England's Queen,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55build with her husband Albert, Prince Consort,
0:08:55 > 0:09:00this Italian palace - Osborne - on the English Channel?
0:09:04 > 0:09:07"The dear Prince is constantly occupied
0:09:07 > 0:09:10"in directing the many necessary improvements
0:09:10 > 0:09:15"which are to be made," wrote the young Queen Victoria in 1845.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18VIOLIN MUSIC PLAYS
0:09:18 > 0:09:23That melody for the violin is Prince Albert's own composition.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26MUSIC CONTINUES
0:09:26 > 0:09:30"It is impossible to imagine a prettier spot -
0:09:30 > 0:09:34"valleys and woods which would be beautiful anywhere,
0:09:34 > 0:09:40"but all this near the sea - the woods grow into the sea -
0:09:40 > 0:09:43"is quite perfection.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46"We have a charming beach quite to ourselves.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51"And then we can walk about anywhere without being followed and mobbed.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55"Drove down to the beach with my maids
0:09:55 > 0:09:57"and went into the bathing machine
0:09:57 > 0:10:00"where I undressed and bathed in the sea
0:10:00 > 0:10:03"for the first time in my life.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07"It was delightful until I put my head under the water."
0:10:07 > 0:10:10MUSIC CONTINUES
0:10:18 > 0:10:20"And last not least,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24"we have Portsmouth and Spithead so close at hand
0:10:24 > 0:10:27"that we shall be able to watch what is going on,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29"which will please the Navy."
0:10:48 > 0:10:51The Isle of Wight prospered.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56Ryde, so near to Osborne, grew in size.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00The whole island was fired by the Royal example.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Facing the Channel on the seaward side
0:11:18 > 0:11:23rose Ventnor's lodging houses, tier on tier...
0:11:33 > 0:11:37The island's health resort in sunny pride
0:11:37 > 0:11:41by terraces descending to the pier.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54The National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest,
0:11:54 > 0:12:00built just west of Ventnor, in 1868 -
0:12:00 > 0:12:05empty, now that they've found other cures for consumption.
0:12:10 > 0:12:17How many a pale face looked its last out of these windows?
0:12:17 > 0:12:21How many prayers were offered for sufferers?
0:12:21 > 0:12:27How many prayers were made by suffering patients?
0:12:27 > 0:12:34Echoes of weak coughs along deserted corridors. Empty.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland
0:13:18 > 0:13:22At the sea-down's edge between windward and lee
0:13:22 > 0:13:26Walled round with rocks as an inland island
0:13:26 > 0:13:30The ghost of a garden fronts the sea.
0:13:32 > 0:13:38The sea as a cure for illness - 1868.
0:13:38 > 0:13:43In the next year the pier at Clevedon in Somerset
0:13:43 > 0:13:45was being built.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49The sea as a source of pleasure,
0:13:49 > 0:13:54for little steamer trips to Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Lynton and Lynmouth, Flat Holm and Steep Holm
0:13:58 > 0:14:01and other places of popular resort.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04At the opening ceremony, they said,
0:14:04 > 0:14:09"We believe it the commencement of better times for our fair Clevedon."
0:14:09 > 0:14:11It was.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52As the Great Western Railway Guide Book in 1884 said,
0:14:52 > 0:14:55"An excellent esplanade faces the sea.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00"Good beaches, gardens and shrubberies, and large modern villas
0:15:00 > 0:15:03"built along the edges of the lofty sea-cliffs,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06"with churches and chapels, public schools,
0:15:06 > 0:15:10"lodging and boarding houses, hotels, dining rooms,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13"public gardens and excellent shops."
0:15:21 > 0:15:24The sea as a source of pleasure.
0:15:24 > 0:15:26Steamer trips round the bay!
0:15:58 > 0:16:01These verses from long-forgotten songs
0:16:01 > 0:16:08remind me of the Victorian trippers' traditional fear of the sea:
0:16:08 > 0:16:11Those horrible pistons They make my heart thump
0:16:11 > 0:16:13As the paddling wheels go round
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Are they churning the ocean up into a lump
0:16:15 > 0:16:20Or will we all be drowned? Hey ho! Or will be all be drowned?
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Oh, the paddle paddle steamer What a clever little schema
0:16:39 > 0:16:41That ever she inveigled me from shore
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Now I know I can't escape Perhaps we're sailing for the Cape
0:16:47 > 0:16:51And I'll never see old England any more, no more.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56But if the truth be told,
0:16:56 > 0:17:01the man of wealth added some pleasure to his search for health.
0:17:09 > 0:17:16Tropic Torquay, overlooking historic Torbay:
0:17:16 > 0:17:21the balmy climate, the Palm Court Orchestra.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:17:36 > 0:17:42This was the time of the holiday hotels with commanding names.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48Grand, Imperial, Majestic, Palace.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52"Well, we've come here every year and they make us very comfortable.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55"They know us, you see."
0:17:59 > 0:18:02"You've left yourself wide open.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05"I shall have to take two of yours."
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Huff!
0:18:07 > 0:18:09"Check."
0:18:15 > 0:18:20Exclusive Bournemouth Where the tide came twice
0:18:20 > 0:18:25And children played with children who were nice
0:18:25 > 0:18:30Where parents dozed in after-luncheon ease
0:18:30 > 0:18:34And lovers longed to touch each other's knees.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51Hydraulic power delights the old and young
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Steam traction! Let its praises now be sung.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58BRASS-BAND MUSIC PLAYS
0:19:09 > 0:19:11TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Steam down the valley Steam below the hill
0:19:21 > 0:19:25The factories empty Lodging houses fill.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28MUSIC CONTINUES
0:19:46 > 0:19:51The long expresses glided by the shore
0:19:51 > 0:19:56And towns grew where were never towns before
0:19:56 > 0:20:00Compartments packed and holidays begun
0:20:00 > 0:20:03It's go Great Western to the coast and sun.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05MUSIC CONTINUES
0:20:17 > 0:20:20MUSIC ENDS
0:20:20 > 0:20:22In fact, it was the railways
0:20:22 > 0:20:26which made the mid-Victorian seaside resorts.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30On bank holidays, they were crowded out.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35I want to take us off to somewhere
0:20:35 > 0:20:37where the sun shines brightly
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and the tourists tarry
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Some people call it Weston-super-Mare
0:20:43 > 0:20:46And others call it Weston-super-"marry"
0:20:46 > 0:20:49"Mare" of course is Latin for "the sea"
0:20:49 > 0:20:52And Mare is what here it's said to be.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57On this particular Whitsun Weston's hey-day
0:20:57 > 0:21:00Excursion trains arriving every minute
0:21:00 > 0:21:04The town was cramm'd like rallies on a May Day
0:21:04 > 0:21:07You wouldn't have thought more people could get in it
0:21:07 > 0:21:11The roundabouts went round The swings went swinging
0:21:11 > 0:21:15The warm sea sparkled and the Earth was singing
0:21:15 > 0:21:20Yes, everything seemed paradise at Weston
0:21:20 > 0:21:23That Whitsun afternoon beside the sea
0:21:23 > 0:21:27No-one looked backward Everybody pressed on
0:21:27 > 0:21:30To minerals and to ices and to tea
0:21:30 > 0:21:36Even the people walking on the pier Were unaware of trouble waiting near.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39MUSIC PLAYS: "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside"
0:21:45 > 0:21:48How innocent and kindly was the funning
0:21:48 > 0:21:52All dedicated to the god of sport
0:21:52 > 0:21:55The driving and the diving and the running
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Fresh air and freedom - will they all be caught?
0:21:59 > 0:22:01MUSIC CONTINUES
0:22:25 > 0:22:32What thins the crowd, what darkens and what chills?
0:22:32 > 0:22:36A mighty rainstorm from the Mendip Hills.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39THUNDERCLAPS
0:22:47 > 0:22:50All put your macs on! Run for shelter fast!
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Crouch where you like until it's fine again
0:22:54 > 0:22:56Holiday cheerfulness is unsurpassed
0:22:56 > 0:23:00Why be put out by healthy English rain?
0:23:00 > 0:23:04Are we downhearted? No, we're happy still
0:23:04 > 0:23:09We came here to enjoy ourselves - and we will.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12BAND LEADER: Now, we invite you to join in and sing with us.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Now, really let it go.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16Enjoy yourselves and sing heartily.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18Right away, please.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23# What a friend we have in Jesus
0:23:23 > 0:23:28# All our sins and griefs to bear
0:23:28 > 0:23:31# What a privilege to carry... #
0:23:31 > 0:23:36BETJEMAN: What's true of Weston's true of more than most
0:23:36 > 0:23:39No - EVERY resort along the coast
0:23:39 > 0:23:42When everybody's feeling safe and warm
0:23:42 > 0:23:47Unheralded arrives the summer storm
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Those are the things the posters do not show
0:23:52 > 0:23:55Those are the headaches of the PRO.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57BAND LEADER: Really open your mouths and sing.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01This is the best air in the British Isles. Take advantage of it.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06# Have we trials and temptations?
0:24:06 > 0:24:07# Is there trouble... #
0:24:07 > 0:24:11BETJEMAN: The model village shut and still it's raining
0:24:11 > 0:24:15Queues for the cafes and the sea-fronts bleak
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Go to the pictures, then? I'm not complaining
0:24:18 > 0:24:23But didn't I see that film the other week?
0:24:23 > 0:24:26As for our lodgings, we're in quite a fix
0:24:26 > 0:24:29They never want us back till after six.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34# Jesus knows our every weakness
0:24:34 > 0:24:39# Take it to the Lord in prayer... #
0:24:39 > 0:24:41BAND LEADER: Singing very well, but come on,
0:24:41 > 0:24:43we can do far better than this.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Let's sing that last verse once again, please.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47THEY SING
0:24:47 > 0:24:51BETJEMAN: Yet this is quite the friendliest place I've hit on
0:24:51 > 0:24:53The air's a tonic and the sea's a treat
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Of all the merry coast resorts of Britain
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Its sunshine record would be hard to beat
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Look on the bright side and we'll all feel better
0:25:03 > 0:25:08And if we're wet Well, those out there are wetter.
0:25:26 > 0:25:33Escape - escape from the holiday crowds - over Saltash Bridge.
0:25:33 > 0:25:41Saltash Bridge by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 1859 -
0:25:41 > 0:25:45the first railway link between Cornwall and England.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51Cornwall - not another county, another country.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55For years, an all-day journey by train
0:25:55 > 0:25:59and a wild reward at the end of it.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04No piers, no pierrots.
0:26:04 > 0:26:07With what delight did late-Victorian artists
0:26:07 > 0:26:10bring their oils and watercolours
0:26:10 > 0:26:13to paint the flaming gorse and amethystine sea.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Have the rocks faith that thus they stand
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Unmoved, a grim and stately band
0:26:34 > 0:26:38And look like warriors tried and brave
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Stern, silent, reckless o'er the wave?
0:26:41 > 0:26:44CLASSICAL MUSIC SWELLS
0:26:50 > 0:26:56Thy way, O God, is in the sea Thy paths, where awful waters be
0:26:56 > 0:27:00Thy spirit thrills the conscious stone:
0:27:00 > 0:27:03O Lord, Thy footsteps are not known!
0:27:49 > 0:27:55By train from suburbs of the big towns, by trap and wagonette,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00past fern-stuffed hedges, from the oil-lit country station,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04schoolmasters came with promising pupils,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07undergraduates on reading parties,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11doctors with thin wives and freckled daughters.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Lured by King Arthur they came, Victorian romantics,
0:28:17 > 0:28:22to that holy island with its Celtic cells and chapel -
0:28:22 > 0:28:27a sort of Lindisfarne of Cornwall: Tintagel.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30CLASSICAL MUSIC SWELLS
0:28:50 > 0:28:54So all day long the noise of battle roll'd
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Among the mountains by the winter sea
0:28:57 > 0:29:00Until King Arthur's table, man by man,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03Had fall'n in Lyonnesse about their Lord
0:29:03 > 0:29:07King Arthur. Then, because his wound was deep,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10The bold Sir Bedivere uplifted him
0:29:10 > 0:29:14Sir Bedivere, the last of all his knights
0:29:14 > 0:29:17And bore him to a chapel nigh the field
0:29:17 > 0:29:20A broken chancel with a broken cross
0:29:20 > 0:29:25That stood on a dark strait of barren land
0:29:25 > 0:29:27On one side lay the ocean
0:29:27 > 0:29:30And on one lay a great water.
0:29:36 > 0:29:41Cornwall is milder on its southern coast, which has a holy island too:
0:29:41 > 0:29:45St Michael's Mount.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50What Mont St Michel is to Brittany, this is to Cornwall.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55A monastic site, later a fortress
0:29:55 > 0:30:01reached by a spit of land covered by water when the tide is high.
0:30:06 > 0:30:12Celtic saints came here and, later, Norman barons.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16Then King's men and Cromwell's men.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Shrine, chapel, castle - later private house.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29A hundred years ago,
0:30:29 > 0:30:35JP St Aubyn very well restored its outer walls and turrets.
0:30:35 > 0:30:41Victorians liked it. So do we, who gaze across its battlements today.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12In best positions all along the coast
0:31:12 > 0:31:15rose the new castles of the newly rich.
0:31:15 > 0:31:19The well-appointed family hotels:
0:31:19 > 0:31:23the Headland, Newquay, 1891.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26Lifts to all floors.
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Electrically lit.
0:31:28 > 0:31:33Views of the sea from all the suites of rooms.
0:31:34 > 0:31:40The gaps between the large hotels were filled with boarding houses,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45tea places and shops, electric palaces and bright arcades.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52Newquay became indeed the kind of place romantics avoided.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56Cornwall's holiday town.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02But once below the level of the cliff, and on the lovely beaches,
0:32:02 > 0:32:07what a wealth of rocks and sand and long Atlantic surf.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Whenever I surf, this is the sort of thing that happens.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13These are the experts - Australians, of course.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56What people really came to Cornwall for
0:33:56 > 0:34:00was picturesque villages like this. That's Port Isaac.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Do you remember those Royal Academy paintings of King Edward's reign -
0:34:07 > 0:34:11the sturdy fishermen pulling the lifeboat out,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14the Methodists on a Sunday after chapel,
0:34:14 > 0:34:18the red-cheeked fishergirl with sea-green eyes,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20the quayside chat,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24the widow in a whitewashed room, "A Hopeless Dawn",
0:34:24 > 0:34:26an angry sea outside,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30the little climbing lanes of slate-built cots,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33the wharves and sagging rooftops,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36the seaweed-slippery quay?
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Cornwall became an artist's paradise,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42and the amateur photographer's as well.
0:34:42 > 0:34:46Those camera studies of weather-beaten skin,
0:34:46 > 0:34:52those sepia, slightly out-of-focus views of bollards on the quay.
0:34:52 > 0:34:59Posing for artists here in famed St Ives became quite an industry.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04There's something in most of us that wants to be what we aren't:
0:35:04 > 0:35:09a Cornish fishermen, a Cornish boatbuilder or sailmaker.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14We wear navy-blue jerseys and sou'westers if we can.
0:35:14 > 0:35:16We want to be taken for natives.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21That's because we feel the need of solitude and roots.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24We listen guilelessly to sailors' yarns,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28oft told to tourists while the seagulls scream.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37The shrewd Cornish - independent, proud -
0:35:37 > 0:35:42cash in on the foreigners, and small blame to them.
0:35:42 > 0:35:48Look at Polperro down there. "Plenty of car parks on the way to the quay.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52"And plenty of gift shops on the way to the car parks.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54"It's economics, see."
0:35:54 > 0:35:59The Mermaid's Ditty Box, The Witch's Boutique,
0:35:59 > 0:36:03another car park and then Davy Jones's Diner
0:36:03 > 0:36:06with a nice smell of fish and chips.
0:36:06 > 0:36:13The Delinquent Piskey, home-made teas and Cornish clotted cream.
0:36:13 > 0:36:16And then we're at the harbour.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19MUSIC: "The Floral Dance"
0:36:19 > 0:36:22There's not much money in fishing now.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25Ferrying visitors, there's that.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28MUSIC CONTINUES
0:36:46 > 0:36:50The Cornish have always been actors and singers - Henry Irving for one -
0:36:50 > 0:36:53so there's the literary side,
0:36:53 > 0:36:58and very popular it is with the tourists on warm evenings.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02But bring your rugs and hot drinks just in case.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11- ..blast me with his lightning! - No, no, Admetus,
0:37:11 > 0:37:13you'll hurt him! Give me that. There!
0:37:13 > 0:37:16- War, war, war! - No, no, Alcestis,
0:37:16 > 0:37:21- that's no way to behave. - Kill! Kill
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Was it for this I wrestled all night with death
0:37:24 > 0:37:26on the leaden bank of Lethe?
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Father!
0:37:28 > 0:37:31DIRECTOR: Righto, everybody. That's fine. Back again, please, everybody.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Yes, take up your opening positions.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Up on the slab again, where you were to start with.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38Take her hand. Yes, that's fine...
0:37:39 > 0:37:41BETJEMAN: Minack Theatre, Porthcurno,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44rehearsing The Thracian Horses,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47a witty comedy set in Classical Greece.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51I know no better-sited theatre.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Nature has made the Minack Theatre famed
0:37:55 > 0:37:59Let's go to Minehead and see nature tamed.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05'This is Radio Butlin calling!
0:38:05 > 0:38:08'The time is a quarter past 12
0:38:08 > 0:38:11'and lunch for first-sitting campers
0:38:11 > 0:38:13'is now available.'
0:38:18 > 0:38:22I floated over Butlin's between luncheon time and tea
0:38:22 > 0:38:26And I wished that I was young again and as I used to be
0:38:26 > 0:38:30When anticipated pleasure was as boundless as the sea.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42When Peter came from Peterborough My goodness he was shy
0:38:42 > 0:38:46When Wendy came from Wendover she felt she'd like to cry
0:38:46 > 0:38:49But now they've formed a friendship which will lead to Lovers' Lane
0:38:49 > 0:38:53For they hold each other by the hand when travelling on the train!
0:39:05 > 0:39:10Shirl and Sheila just are friends For boys they do not care
0:39:10 > 0:39:14They tell each other secrets in the safety of the air
0:39:14 > 0:39:17Regardless of what's going on in chalets over there.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33The twins inveigled Grandpa on the switchback by a trick
0:39:33 > 0:39:38But Grandpa had the laugh on them For both the twins were sick.
0:40:01 > 0:40:06"Hard luck, Norman! Never mind! I think there's a consolation prize -
0:40:06 > 0:40:08"Now next, all of you..."
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Look at this competition.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14We've all come here to seek
0:40:14 > 0:40:18The most cheerful, charming, chubby lass, Miss Venus of the week
0:40:18 > 0:40:20Which of them do you think it is?
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Now use your eyes and brains
0:40:23 > 0:40:29Miss Harringay, Miss Stoke-on-Trent, Miss Widnes or Miss Staines?
0:40:29 > 0:40:32WOLF-WHISTLE
0:40:33 > 0:40:37I'm glad I came to Butlin's I hope you liked the fun
0:40:37 > 0:40:41There's some of it in all of us Or almost everyone.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00We don't all want to be organised.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04But if we aren't, we seem to sprawl everywhere.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08Look what's happened at Westward Ho!, North Devon.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13We find a lovely bit of country and methodically we start to spoil it.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18And it's not just true here, it's so along many miles of coast -
0:41:18 > 0:41:21too many, I'd say.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27Where yonder villa hogs the sea Was open cliff to you and me
0:41:27 > 0:41:32The many-coloured cara's fill The salty marsh to Shilla Mill
0:41:32 > 0:41:37And, foreground to the hanging wood, Are toilets where the cattle stood
0:41:37 > 0:41:43Now, as we near the ocean roar A smell of deep-fry haunts the shore
0:41:43 > 0:41:50In pools beyond the reach of tide The Senior Service packets glide
0:41:50 > 0:41:57And on the sand the surf-line lisps With wrappings of potato crisps
0:41:57 > 0:42:02The breakers bring, with merry noise Tribute of broken plastic toys
0:42:02 > 0:42:06And lichened spears of blackthorn glitter
0:42:06 > 0:42:08With harvest of the August litter.
0:42:30 > 0:42:36Perhaps one day a wave will break Before the breakfasters awake
0:42:36 > 0:42:39And sweep the cara's out to sea
0:42:39 > 0:42:42The oil, the tar, and you and me
0:42:42 > 0:42:45And leave in windy criss-cross motion
0:42:45 > 0:42:48A waste of undulating ocean.
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Out there it's solitude:
0:43:01 > 0:43:05they can't build on the sea.
0:43:10 > 0:43:17"They've taken our wind! Oh, no, she's going about! Stand by to gybe!
0:43:17 > 0:43:22"Ready about! Lee O! Starboard!"
0:43:37 > 0:43:42Can the sea be solitude? No, it's being developed.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58Hark to the song of the water hogs
0:43:58 > 0:44:01As they charge at us over the waves...
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Executive chases executive Mercury, Volvo and Ford
0:45:38 > 0:45:42"Steady, old man, with the steering - Your company chairman's aboard!"
0:45:42 > 0:45:46"The sea's as smooth as a mill pond We'll open it up like a flower
0:45:46 > 0:45:49"We'll drive and we'll thrust as competitors must
0:45:49 > 0:45:52"And the prize of our driving is power."
0:46:44 > 0:46:48I'm glad it's quiet again and I'm on foot.
0:46:48 > 0:46:54You know that sort of holy hush there is in the land on Christmas morning?
0:46:54 > 0:46:59The roads fairly empty, the sky almost free of aeroplanes,
0:46:59 > 0:47:04and you begin to hear and see and smell once more.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07The seaside can be like this
0:47:07 > 0:47:12if you find an unspoiled stretch of it like this one in north Cornwall.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16An enlightened landlord has saved this part.
0:47:16 > 0:47:22Other bits have been saved by the National Trust and local authorities.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27The developers have had more than their fair share of the coast.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31A third of it is already completely built up.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35We must keep the rest of it for the good of our souls.
0:47:41 > 0:47:46George III took the seaside cure for biliousness.
0:47:46 > 0:47:52We need the seaside cure for relief from anxiety and tension.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57We need it to realise there's something greater than ourselves -
0:47:57 > 0:48:01even if it only comes in little things:
0:48:01 > 0:48:04turf, scented with thyme and mushrooms,
0:48:04 > 0:48:10the feel of firm sand underfoot, the ripple of an incoming tide,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14a salt breeze, the smell of seaweed -
0:48:14 > 0:48:17that's where the cure is: at the sea's edge.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand
0:48:34 > 0:48:37As they have done for centuries, as they will
0:48:37 > 0:48:40For centuries to come, when not a soul
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks
0:48:43 > 0:48:46And seaside is forgotten
0:48:46 > 0:48:51Still the tides Consolingly disastrous, will return
0:48:51 > 0:48:56While the strange starfish, hugely magnified
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.