Sea Cities

A cruise ship terminal manager prepares for a historic anniversary visit.

Around the coast of Britain are cities where the sea shapes people's lives. In this returning three-part series, we hear the stories of the ports and rivers where people do jobs that touch us all.

First up, the spotlight is on Sunderland where the city is looking to a new future. We meet some of the people helping to bring about change and others working to keep traditions alive.

In the second episode of Sea Cities we get a glimpse of work and play around Bristol's port and harbour.

For the first time in their 600-year history the city's dock workers, known as the Pill Hobblers, allow Sea Cities to film them. The Hobblers are the only people allowed to moor all the ships passing through the commercial Port of Bristol. Today there are just 18 men all from the village of Pill, seven miles from Bristol, who carry this out. We meet their newest recruit Matthew Stephen, or Boff as he's known, as he gets to grips with the job's unsociable hours.

Summer is crucial for the businesses along Brighton's seafront, including Jack & Neil Messenger's fish shop and chef Michael Bremner's new restaurant, while traditional seaside favourites Punch & Judy compete against new tourist attractions like British Airways' i360. In Sealife, the UK's oldest working aquarium, Joe Williams plans his team's raft for beach festival Paddle Round the Pier, while out at sea the south coast's first offshore wind-farm takes shape. Narrated by Rob Bell.