What jobs, jokes, relationships, responsibilities and shared experiences have moulded the communities, the families of the English nation? In this series of six films, English communities still look remarkably different from each other.
1: Whitby, North Yorkshire
In Whitby, with its back to the moors and its face to the sea, a group of fishing families have shared the perils and the triumphs of a sea-faring life for centuries - families like the Storrs, the Leadleys and the Harlands.
Brian Trueman meets the old who tend the traditions of their fathers, the fishing-boat skippers who count the cost of the present and fear for their sons, and the enthusiastic young who still talk with pride about following in their fathers' footsteps.
Film cameraman DAVID JACKSON Film recordist MALCOLM HILL Film editor PETER MARSH Producer JOHN C. MILLER BBC Manchester