The Warship: Tour of Duty

It's May 2021 and HMS Queen Elizabeth - higher than Nelson's Column, longer than the Houses of Parliament and weighing in at 65,000 tons - is about to set sail on her first-ever operational mission. Ahead is a gruelling seven-month voyage through the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, to the South China Sea.

The £3.5bn warship carries 18 F35 stealth jet fighters, the most lethal warplane ever designed, plus a squadron of state-of-the-art anti-submarine Merlin helicopters. On board the gigantic aircraft carrier is a ship's company of 1,600 men and women, including 300 US Marines and aviators. This deployment to the other side of an increasingly troubled world will be a demonstration of Britain's new naval strength to friends and foes alike.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is leading a task force of seven destroyers and frigates to protect her and two supply ships to keep her topped up with fuel and stores. The most powerful task force to leave UK shores since the Falklands War will soon need to flex its considerable muscle in the face of escalating international tension and aggression.

In this first episode, the Queen Elizabeth is being shadowed by Russian spy ships in the Mediterranean, testing her weapons and preparing her crew for what lies ahead. Landing in Sicily for their first run ashore, the crew gets a chance to party. It is their last opportunity to relax before entering the eastern Mediterranean, Russia's backyard.

While exercising her rights of navigation in international waters, HMS Queen Elizabeth is faced by Russian warships diverted from the Black Sea to intercept her, as well as Russian aircraft scrambled from their base in Syria to buzz the British task force. This leads to a amatic standoff near the coast of Syria.

Meanwhile, the 1,600-strong ship's company lives a subterranean existence, continuing with their tasks and duties while largely unaware of the drama being enacted in the sky above them.

Following a welcome break in Cyprus, HMS Queen Elizabeth heads back to sea. But after passing through the Suez Canal, it's discovered that one sailor has contracted Covid. By the time the ship enters the Indian Ocean, Covid is spreading almost out of control, with 400 sailors in isolation.

With almost a third of the ship's labour force out of commission, command has to find ways of keeping the aircraft carrier operational, or the deployment could be seriously compromised or even abandoned. Most departments are forced to increase the length of their work shifts from eight to twelve hours, and tensions rise across the warship.

In the South China Sea, the warship launches anti-submarine helicopters to see off an unwelcome visit from the Chinese Navy.

After travelling over 20,000 miles, HMS Queen Elizabeth heads from Japan back to Guam for vital maintenance. After the sailors relax on a longer run of shore leave, the ship and her escorts sail in convoy with the American, Japanese and Australian navies for a show of strength in China's backyard.

After six months at sea on her first operational deployment, HMS Queen Elizabeth departs the Pacific for the long voyage home. Although it will be two months before the ship arrives back in Portsmouth, most are already thinking of family and Christmas.

As the ship makes its way across the Indian Ocean, the F35 jet pilots have to maintain a strict round-the-clock programme of launches and landings to ensure combat readiness - until, one morning, an F35 on a routine launch loses power at a critical moment.