Round Britain Whizz was a 1986 half-hour programme of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 science series Q.E.D.

Q.E.D. (BBC TV series)

Q.E.D. was the name of a strand of BBC popular science documentary films which aired in the United Kingdom from 1982 to 1999.-Format:...

. It consisted of a speeded up flight around the coastline of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 with guest appearances from geologists and TV personalities including Patrick Moore

Patrick Moore

Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...

, David Bellamy

David Bellamy

David James Bellamy OBE is a British author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and botanist. He has lived in County Durham since 1960.-Career:...

 and Clay Jones

Clay Jones

Clay Jones, , was a horticulturist and broadcaster best known as the Chairman of the BBC Radio 4 programme Gardener's Question Time....

 telling the viewer about the geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 and natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 of certain areas.

The Shape of The Nation

In 1988 the BBC filmed an extended 2-hour version called The Shape of The Nation, which was broadcast on Boxing Day. This version had different narrators for the three countries of Britain: John Westbrook

John Westbrook (actor)

John Westbrook was an English actor.Born in Teignmouth, Devon, John Westbrook worked mainly in theatre and in radio. He also made occasional film and television appearances. His most famous role was as Christopher Gough in Roger Corman's The Tomb of Ligeia...

 for England, Sally Magnusson

Sally Magnusson

Sally Magnússon,, is a Scottish broadcaster and writer, currently working for BBC Scotland. She also presents Tracing Your Roots on BBC Radio 4.-Early life:...

 for Scotland and Clay Jones

Clay Jones

Clay Jones, , was a horticulturist and broadcaster best known as the Chairman of the BBC Radio 4 programme Gardener's Question Time....

 for Wales. The coastline of England, Scotland and Wales was filmed at close quarters from an RAF Hawk

BAE Hawk

The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, advanced jet trainer aircraft. It first flew in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk. The Hawk is used by the Royal Air Force, and other air forces, as either a trainer or a low-cost combat aircraft...

, and the accompanying narrative included comments from locals, and experts such as geologist Fred Dunning, geographer John Smith, Sir Patrick Moore, Sir Alec Rose

Alec Rose

Sir Alec Rose was a nursery owner and fruit merchant in England who had a passion for amateur single-handed sailing, for which he was ultimately knighted....

 and Frank Hennesey amongst others. The Hawk was flown by Squadron Leader Ray Thilthorpe.

"Satellite pictures show a coastline that's very familiar, yet hardly anyone's seen it at close quarters. Photographs give an inkling, but what you really need to do is fly; fly around the entire mainland of England, Scotland and Wales with experts to explain what you see and ordinary people - who live on the coast - to say what it means to them. That way you paint a living picture of the shape of the nation."

External links

• Round Britain Whizz BBC Archive

The Shape of the Nation Youtube excerpts