Bournemouth to Plymouth
The stunning stretch of coast has attracted holidaymakers for years and
is one of the most exclusive places in the world to live. It has seen
some remarkable engineering feats, from battling against the sea to build
a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks to the construction of a coastal railway.
Sandbanks
 The
peninsular of Sandbanks is one of the expensive places in the world to
buy a property. But how did this piece of headland get to be so exclusive?
Neil Oliver meets entrepreneur Tom Doyle and has a tour of one of Sandbanks
most expensive houses on the market - a snip at £10m.
Poole Harbour
 Poole
Harbour is the second largest natural harbour in the world.
Much of the harbour is incredibly shallow meaning that ferries have to
negotiate specially dredged channels.
Surrounded by huge ships, Neil Oliver takes a paddle in the harbour -
¾ mile from land! And joins Harbour Commissioner, Peter Burt, who
co-ordinates the traffic around the harbour.
Swanage Cliffs - Deep Water Soloing
 Mike
Weeks provides an insight into deep water soloing, where you climb above
the sea with no equipment. The rock here lends itself to an overhanging
nature and the sea is deep - so it is good for deep water soloing.
It is recommended that you first learn how to climb properly with ropes
and safety equipment.
Battle of the Sandcastles
 Where
is the best place to build your sandcastles this summer? Alice Roberts
puts three seaside locations to the test - Weymouth, Lyme Regis and Torquay.
Lyme Regis Council have imported 30,000 tonnes of sand from a quarry
in Normandy. How will the French sand stand up to the other two resorts
in the battle of the sandcastles.
 But
is there more to building a sandcastle than simply using a bucket and
spade. What is the perfect formula?
With the help of Matthew Bennett, Alice Roberts examines the quality
of the sand by looking at the angle of internal friction (the ability
of dry grains of sand to lock together) and Matthews's ideal formula of
eight parts sand to one part water.
Lyme Regis - Susceptible to landslides
 Lyme
Regis is very unstable and prone to landslides. But what causes so many
landslides in this area?
Earth Scientist Richard Edmonds explains to Nicholas Crane how this areas
geology, combined with the sea's erosion, causes such a problem.
The town has been built on clay and the hills are capped with porous
sandstone. When it rains, the water comes down through the hills. At the
junction between the rock types, it lubricates the clay surface and chunks
of the cliff top slide down the surface.
 Nicholas
meets Harry May who has been living in temporary accommodation since 1962,
when his home fell victim to a landslide.
But now a £24m defensive scheme is being put in place. The hills
are being stabilised and gravel has been put onto the beach to help absorb
the wave's energy, and add weight to the toe of the landslide.
 Sidmouth
- Donkey sanctuary
The donkey sanctuary has nearly 400 donkeys - many are retired beach donkeys.
Neil Oliver joins Annie Hamer to find out about the largest donkey sanctuary
in the world.
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Dawlish - Brunels railway under threat
There are only a few coast railways left in Great Britain - but they are
under threat. Their sea walls are getting undermined by the waves.
 In
1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was commissioned to build an extension to
the Great Western Railway along the south Devon coast to Plymouth. But
why did he build the line here?
Due to the landscape he had two options - to build along the coast or
put the route through some very long tunnels linking Dawlish to Teignmouth.
The original route was further out and exposed to the sea. But after
opposition from locals he built a system of five tunnels through cliffs
and a 4 mile sea wall.
 When
the line opened in 1847 he used a new means of propulsion - the Atmospheric
system. But it was expensive to maintain and steam locomotives took over
after a year.
Mark Horton travels in style on the Torbay Express Steam Train to meet
railway historian Peter Kay, to find out about the troubled life of the
railway along this stretch of coast.
Slapton Sands - D-Day landings
 In
November 1943, 3,000 residents were evacuated from the villages around
Slapton Sands.
Dick Strawbridge meets one of the residents, John Hannaford, who was
a teenager at the time.
One of the biggest offensives of the Second World War was the D-Day landings
on the beaches of Normandy.
 Utah
beach was one of the main beaches to be attacked by the American forces.
To provide a battle training area a similar location was needed - Slapton
Sands.
The simulation of the D-Day landings was codenamed Exercise Tiger - but
one particular exercise went drastically wrong.
 Survivor
Steve Sadlon, a former radio operator of the US navy, gives an account
of what happened.
As his craft made its way to Slapton, they were attacked by German torpedo
boats. The Germans were spotted by a British fleet - but radio warnings
never made it to the convoy.
The official death toll for this day, the 28th April, was 749.
 Burgh
Island
At high tide a sea tractor takes guests across to the hotel on Burgh Island.
The hotel was built by Industrialist Archie Nettlefold in 1929.
It has had many famous visitors such as Noel Coward, Agatha Christie
and Edward and Mrs Simpson.
Eddystone Lighthouse
 Douglass's
Tower has been the lighthouse on the Eddystone rocks since 1882.
What is quite remarkable is that the world's first offshore lighthouse
was built here - over 300 years ago!
Ships needed to be protected from these perilous rocks.
 In
1696 Henry Winstanley set about building a lighthouse here. Three years
later and after one failure he finished his masterpiece.
It was a 120 foot structure, finished with ornate engravings and extravagant
wrought iron details, but was destroyed in November 1703 during the Great
Storm.
 John
Smeatons design in 1759 became a standard for lighthouses world wide.
Based on the shape of an oak tree, it was built with blocks of granite.
But cracks appeared in the rocks below and the lighthouse was taken down
and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe as a tribute to its designer.
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Would you like to know what
music was used in this programme?
Bournemouth to Plymouth: Sunday 10 June, 8pm on Â鶹Éç TWO
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