Beach Live: Jurassic Coast Revealed (2018)

From crabs and bats to owls and cormorants, this episode investigates how much wildlife is living on the beach. The strandline's hidden world of sandhoppers and seaweed is magnified, while specialist underwater cameras give a view of sharks and crabs lying deep in the ocean. Dan Snow examines the royal origin of beach huts and sees how varied their use is in modern-day Britain. Lucy Cooke demonstrates how a humble mollusc helps to train racehorses in Devon. Niall Strawson is in charge of the Discovery Centre, where a panel of experts examine and assess the significance of beach finds from all over the country. And the creation of the unique geological make-up of the Jurassic Coast is seen through the medium of cake! Earth scientist Dr Anjana Khatwa talks Niall through the layers as seen from the sea.

There are over 300 shipwrecks in Lyme Bay alone, from old galleons to submarines. Dan dives to discover the story behind some of the more unusual vessels, a number of top secret WWII tanks that sank in a D-Day landings rehearsal known as Exercise Smash. Beach Live also has privileged access to a huge coastal quarry to find out why Portland stone has been used for historic buildings all over the world. Beyond the importance of the stone, the programme follows families of peregrines and little owls that live in these rock faces. How have they fared in this scorching summer?

In the final show live from Charmouth in Dorset, Dan Snow and the team go deep into the subject that has made this stretch of coastline world famous: its fossils. Lucy Cooke travels to London to understand how one plucky entrepreneurial woman, Mary Anning, rocked 19th-century Britain with her fossil finds. And the work of Mary continues to inspire scientists today as Lucy finds out when she travels to Oxford to help reconstruct a plesiosaur. Found only in Charmouth, the best-preserved dinosaur in the UK still has many mysteries. Niall Strawson joins Bristol scientists to help piece the jigsaw of an ichthyosaur together. Dan and Lucy Cooke carry out a live demonstration of burning rock and unpack the history of oil production at nearby Kimmeridge. The team are also on the trail of some living fossils. Dragonflies are prominent at this time of year on the coast in Dorset, but how have these majestic insects survived two mass extinctions?