Boats that Built Britain
Filming
the Series
The Boats that Built Britain was one of the programmes making up the BBC4 Sea Fever Season. It was 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 featured 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 was shown on BBC4 & BBC2 during 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 included 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 also hosted a programme of special events, which featured 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 focussed on the key themes of the exhibition and series. For more information, please visit the National Maritime Museum website.
