Islands of Britain (TV series)

Last updated

Islands of Britain
Presented by Martin Clunes
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of series1
No. of episodes3
Production
ProducersMartin Small
Claire Meech
Rebecca Saponiere
Raghav Shome
Running time45 minutes
Production company ITV Productions
Original release
Network ITV
Release3 May (2009-05-03) 
17 May 2009 (2009-05-17)
Related
Islands of Oz

Islands of Britain is a 2009 documentary series, filmed over the summers of 2008 and 2009 and hosted by Martin Clunes, which visited a number of the islands that lie off the coast of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, as well as the Channel Islands.

Contents

Episodes

Episode 1: The North

Visited Muckle Flugga, Forewick Holm, and Unst in the Shetland Islands then Lewis and Harris, Eigg and Barra in the Outer Hebrides.

Episode 2: The West

Visited Piel Island [1] in Cumbria, Islay in the Inner Hebrides, the Isle of Man, and Rathlin off the coast of Northern Ireland.

Episode 3: The South

Visited Guernsey and Sark in the Channel Islands, St. Michael's Mount, and St Martin's, St Mary's, St Agnes, and Bishop Rock in the Isles of Scilly.

International adaptation

An Australian version of the series titled Martin Clunes: Islands of Australia aired on the Seven Network in 2016, and was co-produced by Buffalo Pictures and hosted by Clunes. [2]

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The Hebrides were settled early on in the settlement of the British Isles, perhaps as early as the Mesolithic era, around 8500–8250 BC, after the climatic conditions improved enough to sustain human settlement. There are examples of structures possibly dating from up to 3000 BC, the finest example being the standing stones at Callanish, but some archaeologists date the site as Bronze Age. Little is known of the people who settled in the Hebrides but they were likely of the same Celtic stock that had settled in the rest of Scotland. Settlements at Northton, Harris, have both Beaker & Neolithic dwelling houses, the oldest in the Western Isles, attesting to the settlement.

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References

  1. Jon Granger (23 September 2008). "TV Star Martin Clunes Hails New King of Piel". NorthWest Evening Mail. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  2. Knox, David (21 March 2016). "Cameras roll on Islands of Oz". TV Tonight . Retrieved 21 March 2016.