Titanic: The Mission

I stumbled across the details for this new TV show yesterday and thought I’d share.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/titanic-the-mission

Titanic is one of the greatest maritime legends in
history. When she set sail she was the largest, heaviest, most expensive
and most luxurious man-made moving object on the planet.

This
series explores how Titanic was built, as a team of engineers builds
iconic sections of the world’s most famous ship, using the methods of
100 years ago.

The team consists of Dave Wilkes, a welder who
works on skyscrapers, Brendan Walker, a design engineer who has built
aeroplanes, Yewande Akinola, a design engineer, and Luke Perry, a
traditional metal worker.

Experiencing traditional methods gives
the team extraordinary insight into the skills and working lives of the
men and women who worked on the ship, during this pinnacle of British
manufacturing and industry, just four generations ago.

It’s the
story of the men and women who built Titanic and how they lived and
worked, and of skills and achievements that communities around Britain
are still intensely proud of today.

After acquiring the first two episodes of the series I was delighted to find that there’s a large amount of archival film included in the episodes. The team acknowledge early on that their efforts are not those of the professionals who would have done this work all their lives but it’s fascinating to watch.

For those in the US, I think PBS is the usual Channel 4 partner (this is not a BBC series) so keep an eye out for it.