A frank account in ten parts of life on the ocean wave in one of Her Majesty's ships.
3: Happy Birthday
Voted the best factual programme of 1976 by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
Ark Royal is 21 years old. The cake is baked and iced; the messages of congratulations are pouring in. But one message is different - it's a mayday call from the Americans. Three hundred miles away somewhere in the Atlantic there is a sick sailor on a US nuclear submarine who may die of acute peritonitis unless he can be air-lifted away and operated upon quickly. The party is dropped, and preparations for the 'casevac' begin - a dramatic race against time that nearly ends tragically.
Film editor PETER GORDON Producer JOHN PURDIE