First in a five-part series about the submarine.
Recalling the dangers posed by life in the early submersibles.
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Nautilus
9.30pm BBC2
Michael Gambon narrates this impressive five-part history of the submarine - or iron coffins as they were once called.
The opening programme gives a sailors view of submarine life during the First World War combining dramatic reconstructions (based on personal accounts) with archive footage (some previously classified material). But it is not all heroics and camerarderie, the most graphic descriptions are of the grim conditions: the smells of petrol mingling with body odour, the cold (it took 10 minutes to chip the ice off their coats after a watch in the Baltic), and, of course, the constant fear.