The Channel: The World’s Busiest Waterway
Drunk passengers, frazzled families, fundraisers swimming in testing conditions, enormous ships trying to squeeze through a narrow body of water: it’s all in a day’s workfor those who police the waters of the English Channel, as this new documentary series makes clear.
Filmed last summer and with a heavy focus on the changes that Brexit may bring to the Channel crossing, this opening episode concentrates on life on the ferries. “We’re already down on passengers and spending from last year,” notes one employee, pointing out that the collapse of the pound against the euro means that holidaymakers are less inclined to splash their cash.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as we also follow a determined single mother who plans to swim the Channel to raise awareness of sickle cell disease, which both her sons have. Elsewhere, there are interesting statistics about the sheer numbers making the crossing – up to 400 ships passing through the 21-mile-wide Dover Strait each day – and captain Mark Miller and his crew have to deal with both a paralytic passenger and the tour company that intends to leave him behind. Sarah Hughes