Season 1 • Episode 11
LatestThe BBC follow-up programme - Sailor Eight Years On - revealing the sad fate of the now decrepit Ark Royal in dock and going in search of its crew members to discover how their lives have changed.
A major BBC television documentary series, first shown in 1976. About the life on board the fourth HMS Ark Royal, a British aircraft carrier. It followed the ship on a five and a half month deployment to North America in 1976 & the follow up years later to find out about some of the characters.
Direction
Pioneering vérité access to military life, zero narration crutch.
Production
Massive logistical feat: filming on active aircraft carrier 1976.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The series predates MTV's 'The Real World' by 14 years and essentially invented the 'follow ordinary people' documentary format.
HMS Ark Royal was Britain's last conventional catapult-launch carrier; its decommissioning in 1979 marked the end of an imperial naval era.
GB
