Coast embarks on a quest to find out why the coast is good for you and asks: why do we love to be beside the seaside?

Nick Crane follows a centuries-old tourist trail out of London and heads for Margate, via Southend-on-Sea. He finds out why our beeline for the beach has a biological effect on our stress levels. At Southend, he asks why Britain's longest pier was built here. As he makes his way to Margate, Nick discovers why this resort once literally saved lives and how it has reinvented itself for the modern tourist by relying on some old traditions.

Miranda Krestovnikoff heads for Shell Island in north Wales on a dusk-till-dawn camping safari. What comes out when we turn in? Miranda investigates the pleasures to be found in a night-time world of wildlife on our coast.

Ruth Goodman delves into an explosive episode of prewar politics that put sleepy St Leonards on the front pages. Why did this inauspicious resort become a hotbed for militant suffragettes, and who was behind the fire-bombing of a local MP's home?

Aeronautical engineer Brendan Walker takes to the air as he investigates the story behind a holiday attraction with a difference: the race to set the world air speed record. In 1953, Neville Duke took the crown back for Britain in the skies over Worthing. Brendan finds out how he did it and takes to the skies in an authentic Hawker Hunter plane to fly in Duke's slipstream.

Finally, sisters Ronnie, Carole and June retrace a memorable trip to the seaside they first enjoyed in the 1960s. The NSPCC filmed a day trip to Weston-super-Mare taken by disadvantaged children from inner-city Birmingham. For many it was the first time they had ever seen the sea - never to be forgotten. Show less