Hannah Cunliffe - Historical Researcher & Maritime Consultant

Filming the Series

The Boats that Built Britain is one of the programmes making up the BBC4 Sea Fever Season.  It is a new 6-part series on BBC4, presented by my father Tom Cunliffe, which looks at Britain's relationship with the sea through a number of key themes - discovery, the Navy, trade & empire, shipping industry, fishing and conflict.

The series features six vessels which it was my job to research and locate.  In August 2009, I was given a brief by Form Films (the production company) to find a short-list of fully operational historic vessels or replica ships, which could be filmed at sea to tell the story of a particular aspect of Britain's maritime heritage.

The resulting series is being shown on BBC4 on Tuesdays & Wednesdays at 8.30pm, starting on Tuesday 4 May 2010.  For more information, please visit the BBC4 webpage.

Exhibition & Lecture Series

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) decided to produce a micro-gallery exhibition based on the BBC4 series - the Boats that Built Britain.  I was also asked to undertake the research for this.  The exhibition includes a replica pilot cutter's punt as its centrepiece, built at the Boatbuilding Academy, Lyme Regis, by Mark Chivers.  It also has some great footage from the television series and includes a trail around the NMM site, encompassing related objects on display.

In partnership with National Historic Ships, the NMM is also hosting a programme of special events, featuring an evening with BBC4 producer David Parker on 11 May and a talk by series presenter Tom Cunliffe at 7pm on 20 May.  From 17 June to 22 July, a run of Thursday morning lectures will focus on the key themes of the exhibition and series.  For more information, or to book a ticket, please visit the National Maritime Museum website.