The four-part series hosted by David Dimbleby titled "Britain and the Sea" begins airing on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday 17th November. The programme on the East Coast featuring Nancy Blackett will be the last in the series, going out on 8th December.

David Dimbleby recorded the section in September at Pin Mill, being filmed outside the Butt and Oyster, then rowing out to Nancy Blackett to interview Nancy Blackett Trust Chairman Peter Willis onboard.

The series follows Dimbleby around the coast in his own gaff yacht Rocket, visiting and interviewing places and people of interest. In the first programme, be meets Ellen MacArthur, the Nancy Blackett Trust’s Patron, in Dartmouth – an emotional encounter for him, as he revealed in a recent interview promoting the series in the Telegraph.

“I was fighting back tears I was so moved. This tiny girl, so astonishing. I could barely speak to her.”

He also has some caustic observations to share on the BBC’s coverage of last year’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames:

“I thought it was the worst-handled day of broadcasting from the BBC in some time. What I was particularly angry about was not the wittering on, but that the whole history of Britain’s seafaring was assembled, and all ignored. The boats that went to Dunkirk were there. Absolutely no interest paid to any of it.”

David Dimbleby will be talking about making the series, and sailing Rocket around the coast, at the National Maritime Museum on 26th November. Tickets for the talk cost £12.