Dr Ann Birchall 'Director of the Colossus Excavation' gives a personal commentary on a new version of the original film to set the scene for this remarkable story that began two and a half thousand years ago, and takes us from the potter's wheel of ancient Greece, through shipwreck in Nelson's day, to the present and the treacherous waters of the Western Approaches to the English Channel.
In 1798 HMS Colossus, returning home from Nelson's fleet in the Mediterranean, foundered off the Scilly Isles. As she sank she took with her part of Sir William Hamilton's second collection of ancient Greek vases. Dr Birchall looks back at 1975 and shows how a group of divers found the wreck and its unique cargo. For Dr Birchall it was just the beginning.
Commentary by Dr Birchall