(Anita) We live on an island of more than 1,000 beaches.

For many of us, they've been bringing fresh air, freedom, and fun for as long as we can remember.

But our beaches are also where Britain meets the outside world.

They're full of extraordinary hidden stories and big events that have shaped our nation and helped to make us who we are.

♪ I'll be uncovering those stories, meeting people with deep local knowledge.

-You look like him.

-He was a rather dashing, good-looking man apparently.

(chuckling) (Anita) Enjoying pleasures on the beach.

Wow, mm!

I'm surfing, woo!

Diving into the world of work... (Ashley) Yeah, you're not going back to Yorkshire, -you're staying here.

-It's beautiful, I'd stay here.

-...and literature.

-Of course -the dog is Dracula.

-Oh.

I'll find architectural gems... Now we're talking.

Just look at it.

...and reveal how those stories still resonate today.

It's really shaped this community, hasn't it?

-Definitely.

-From the bustling beaches of Eastern Scotland to the remoteness of South Wales, from the iconic resorts of Devon to the wildness of Yorkshire and Northumberland.

This is the secret history of Britain's beaches.

(waves crashing) ♪ (whimsical music) Today I'm in Wales.

With over 1,000 miles of coastline, this is truly a nation dominated by the sea.

With its misty mountains, secluded valleys, and some of the biggest and most unspoiled beaches in the UK, Wales has a reputation for remoteness.

But these beaches hide a secret history.

Over the centuries, they've attracted exiles and adventurers that have changed politics, technology, and culture, and they've witnessed some of the biggest events in our history that have changed not only Britain, but the world forever.

From a man who travels faster than anyone before... (Don) I love it because at 170-odd miles an hour, he can't see where he's going, so he's taking one hand off to wipe the windshield.

I can see that, he's wiping the windshield.

...to a boy who becomes King.

This is incredible.

♪ I relive a technological experiment that transformed the world... That's brilliant!

...and discover what inspired one of Wales' most famous authors.

This is incredible.

What a brilliant space.

♪ Welcome to the beautiful beaches of South Wales.

♪ (mellow music) My journey begins on Pendine Sands on the shores of Carmarthen Bay.

♪ Seven spectacular miles of firm, flat golden sand.

♪ It's a stunning beach, but every year thousands of people come here not for the sunbathing, but for the beach's connection to land speed records.

♪ The first land speed records were recorded on roads and tracks, but there was a problem.

The surfaces weren't smooth enough.

They needed a vast amount of space, enough time to be able to accelerate, get to top speed, and then slow down at the other end.

What they needed was Pendine Sands.

(upbeat music) The world's first land speed record was recorded on December the 18th, 1898, by Frenchman Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat with the then astonishing speed of 39 miles an hour.

By the mid 1920s, the cars were much faster and Pendine Sands became the world stage for these thrill-seeking adventurers of speed.

On the 25th of September, 1924, English aristocrat Malcolm Campbell used Pendine Sands for the first time.

He drove his 18.3 liter, 350 horsepower V12 Sunbeam across the pristine beach, establishing a new world record of 146.16 miles per hour.

To find out more about this incredible man, I'm meeting his grandson, Don Wales.

(quirky music) What's the connection to Pendine Beach?

(Don) Well, grandfather was smitten by speed.

I mean, he had this sort of love of wanting to go faster, and he heard about Pendine Sands.

(Anita) This is the chap himself.

-Yes.

-You look like him.

(Don) He was, uh, a rather dashing, good-looking man apparently.

(chuckling) -What was his personality like?

-He was very, very driven.

I never met him 'cause he died in 1948 from natural causes, but everyone who knew him said he was quite a single-minded, determined person, and it was racing first and sort of family second.

We had a go, uh, in the same car, the Sunbeam, that he raced, uh, just we commemorated the 90th anniversary of his 150-mile-an-hour run, and I drove that big Sunbeam at 50 miles an hour and I wasn't allowed to go any faster.

And I just thought, "How did my grandfather do 150 miles an hour in this brute of a car with narrow wheels?"

And at 50 it was sliding all over the place, so, um, he-- he had immense courage.

(Anita) Determined to go quicker, he switched to a new car, the Napier-Campbell Bluebird.

In 1927, it delivered a new record of 174.88 miles per hour.

-What's this photograph here?

-This is the 1927 Bluebird, and I love this picture because the beach is in terrible condition, as you can see, um, he's getting covered in spray from, um, the wheels coming up.

-This is Pendine?

-This is Pendine.

And I love it because at 170-odd miles an hour, he can't see where he's going, so he's taking one hand off to wipe the windshield.

(Anita) I can see that, he's wiping the windshield -at the same time.

-He's got no seatbelts, he's got no crash helmet.

The only thing keeping him in the car is two hands on the steering wheel.

-That photograph is amazing.

-Yeah.

The man was so determined and so driven that it was speed at all costs and he broke the record, they say 174 miles an hour or so.

-And then you started racing.

-I've had a little go, yes.

Nothing compared to what my family have achieved in the past, but we-- we came down to Pendine with an electric car, um, in the early 2000s.

I always thought an electric car would be part of our future and wanted to prove that, and the only way to do that is to try and go fast and get the publicity.

And it seemed the right thing to do to come down to Pendine Sands and try the electric car here.

(Anita) So, what does this beach mean to you and to your family?

(Don) Well, the beach obviously, uh, means quite a lot because it was my grandfather's first successful, um, record venue.

Going on to create nine land speed records and four water speed records, and this is where it all started for him.

(Anita) But one man kept challenging Campbell's records at Pendine, the Welsh engineer John Parry-Thomas.

Racing a car with a 27 liter V12 aero engine, mysteriously named Babs, he broke Campbell's world records twice.

But in 1927, his final attempt ended in tragedy.

To learn more of this brave Welsh underdog, I'm meeting Linda Coode.

(wondrous music) So was there a comp-- a healthy competition between them?

(Linda) Well, there definitely was a healthy competition between them.

Malcolm Campbell was the first person to set the land speed record here in 1924, but the next year he came back and achieved 150 miles an hour.

But the following year, Parry-Thomas came back and he absolutely whooped Malcolm Campbell's land speed record by 20 miles an hour.

I love that.

He must've felt so good, especially as a Welsh son to be on Welsh sand smashing that record.

(Linda) Malcolm, uh, Campbell had made another land speed record and reached 174 miles an hour in 1927, and then Parry-Thomas came back the following month, um, and unfortunately that was when he had his crash.

We believe from press records that a spectator walked through the timing beam, so he had to go back and re--redo the run.

Unfortunately, um, the car flipped, um, crashed, um, and Parry-Thomas was killed with neck and head injuries.

(Anita) Oh, that's so tragic.

Actually, you know, we've been talking about land speed records and like, you know, the-- the kind of thrill of it all, but then that is the-- the really tragic reality of how dangerous what they were doing along this beach really is.

♪ So what happened to the car, Babs?

(Linda) The car was buried, um, by the crew, um, after Parry-Thomas's death.

The car remained here in Pendine, buried in the sand, um, until 1969.

(Anita) And then what happened in 1969?

(Linda) Um, a University lecturer, Owen Wyn Owen, got permission to dig the car up, dug the car up and basically set around a 16-year restoration project, and the car still runs today -and is fully functional.

-So Babs was resurrected.

(Linda) Babs was definitely resurrected.

It's an incredible place.

Just looking at it, behind you, the landscape.

The--this beach, the ocean, it's just vast.

-Nature's racetrack.

-It is, and it's renewed every single day with the tide.

(whirring) (peppy music) ♪ (Anita) But Pendine never lost its link with speed.

Racing still takes place here every year.

With the roar of the engines reminding all of the heady days when Pendine was on the global stage.

♪ But that wasn't the first time that a Welsh beach witnessed world-changing events.

Hundreds of years earlier, just down the coast, a teenage boy made a desperate flight into exile.

At stake was one of the most famous royal dynasties.

(regal music) (adventurous music) ♪ On my journey across the beautiful beaches of South Wales, I'm in Tenby.

With its spectacular natural harbor, there's been a human settlement here for at least 1,000 years.

These days it's one of Wales' busiest resorts with hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

You can see why Tenby has been such a popular tourist destination not just in Wales, but the whole of the UK.

It's stunning, even on a slightly drizzly day like today.

But beyond this beach and that postcard harbor behind me, there's a hidden history.

500 years ago this beach witnessed an event that transformed our national story.

A young boy fled into exile in secret and in fear of his life.

(energetic music) The year was 1471, and in the midst of the vicious Wars of the Roses, two rival families, the houses of York and Lancaster, were locked in a bitter struggle for the English throne.

The boy was Lancastrian and his family's Yorkist enemies were hunting him down.

His survival would have a huge impact on our nation, and he went on to create one of the most significant dynasties in UK history.

His name: Henry Tudor.

♪ He would go on to create the Tudor dynasty.

His son, Henry VIII, and his granddaughter, Elizabeth I, would be two of the greatest monarchs in our history.

But there could only be a Tudor dynasty if the 14-year-old Henry survived, and right now he was in serious danger.

(solemn music) Henry's life had been dramatic from the beginning.

He was born behind the mighty walls of Pembroke Castle, owned by his uncle, Jaspar Tudor.

♪ Before he was even born, Henry's teenage mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was already a widow.

Her Lancastrian husband, Edmund, had been imprisoned by the Yorkists and died of plague.

To find out more, I'm meeting local castle guide -Isla Tasker.

-Edmund Tudor, he was 28 when he married the 12-year-old Margaret Beaufort.

(Anita) No, he was 28, she was only 12?

-She was 12.

-Was that quite common?

(Isla) 12 was the legal age, and she'd already been married before.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Poor girl.

She was 12 when she was married, she was 13 when she was pregnant with his baby, and then she was 13 when she was made a widow.

But luckily Jaspar Tudor was there, came to their rescue.

He brought them here to Pembroke Castle.

He was living here and gave them a luxurious accommodation.

(Anita) What made 1471 such a moment of crisis for young Henry was the Battle of Tewkesbury, where his Lancastrian clan suffered a huge defeat.

14-year-old Henry was now one of the last remaining threats to the Yorkists.

He wouldn't survive long if they got hold of him.

(Isla) So immediately Jaspar Tudor comes to his aid, he whisks him back here to Pembroke Castle, and then they get ready and in the dead of the night they escape.

(suspenseful music) ♪ (Anita) Right.

(Isla) So this is the back door to the castle.

It may make the castle a little bit more vulnerable now to attack, but thankfully the staircase is a spiral staircase spiraling down so that if you were coming up the castle to attack the castle, you're going round in circles, your sword is constantly facing the wall.

(Anita) Right so the advantages for me coming down, anyone coming up can't really attack?

(Isla) You can't, they're just tickling your toes with their swords.

(Anita) All right, let's, uh-- So we've got the advantage?

-Yes.

-Oh, I see, look at that.

No, yeah, anyone coming up would have no chance.

I could battle them off.

(whimsical music) ♪ Wow, we made it.

Ah, no.

♪ It's huge down here.

This is incredible!

♪ What a--I mean, it's a cave.

♪ 'Cause would make sense, wouldn't it, if you wanted to get away without anyone knowing that he's escaping to come down to the cave and they have the river that takes him on to Tenby.

-Easy.

-Easy.

♪ Tenby is only 10 miles away, but when they arrive there, they're still not safe.

They have to find a way to smuggle Henry onto a boat bound for France.

Fortunately the town's mayor was a friend of Jaspar's.

He had a series of tunnels that ran from his own house all the way to the harbor.

Incredibly, to this day, some of the homeowners in the area have basements that connect to these ancient tunnels and I've been granted access to one.

♪ So I've just come off the main road and on the other side of this building is the harbor, and it's said that a section of the very tunnel that Henry and Jaspar used to escape still exists just here, so I'm gonna get my torch on.

We'll take a look.

(water dripping) (exhaling heavily) Now we get a real sense of what escaping under tunnels must have been like, 'cause look.

I'm not very tall and these are tiny, and it's cold, it's damp.

There's water condensation dripping.

Right, it's getting a bit spooky in here, so I'm gonna get out before they lock me in.

(dramatic music) At the back of the same house is a stone staircase.

♪ God, it feels like I'm descending into hell here.

♪ Where on Earth does this go?

♪ All right, there's a door.

♪ Ah, incredible.

This is what it's all about.

Freedom!

(seagulls cawing) To learn more about the outcome of this medieval great escape, I meet up with local historian Nathen Amin.

(Nathen) The chronicle that we have mentioned is that Thomas White, the mayor, had a small bark, a small boat waiting for him on this beach.

It was prepared for the Tudors.

They jumped on-board with a handful of servants and they headed out, uh, to France was their hopeful destination, because the Tudors had relations with the French crown, but the wind took them a little bit off direction and they landed up in Brittany where they had to seek refuge, and they remained there for 14 years.

(Anita) And, of course, at 14, he's not only leaving his homeland, he's leaving his mom.

And one thing with us Welsh boys, we all love our moms.

In the meantime, his mother Margaret Beaufort was back in England trying to work with the Yorkist Kings to bring Henry home.

After nearly a decade of trying this and getting nowhere, Margaret changes tact.

She starts to conspire to bring Henry home and make him King.

She is one of the most courageous and farsighted females in the medieval world, and she knew how to put people together to get what she wanted and that was firstly, her son home, and secondly, her son on the throne of England.

(Anita) I love Margaret Beaufort.

Here's all these boys battling it out, beheading each other, killing each other off, and there she is biding her time, feeling the pain and the loss of a mother having her son sitting over there for 14 years and that entire time she's playing the mastermind, the chief strategist playing the long game to get him back and put him on the throne.

What a babe.

She should be one of Britain's most cherished -and championed women for-- -We're gonna start the campaign for a statue right now, Nathen.

Brilliant, I'm on it.

(intense music) (Anita) Thanks to his mother's plotting, Henry landed at Mill Bay, not far from Tenby, in August 1485 with a small army and launched his risky bid for the crown of England.

At the Battle of Bosworth he took on the Yorkist King, Richard III, and killed him.

14 years after he'd fled Wales into exile, the 28 year old became King Henry VII, founder of the first and only Welsh dynasty in our history, the Tudors.

It was a dynasty that would see his son and grandchildren rule England for 118 years, an era that gave us the Reformation, Shakespeare, and the Spanish Armada, creating a powerful sense of national identity lasting long into the future.

And all because a vulnerable 14-year-old boy made a successful escape into exile from Tenby Harbor Beach.

♪ What a magical place this is.

Steeped in history, important British history, and Welsh history, too.

♪ The Tudor tale is about the origins of a royal dynasty and its battles for power.

But East of here are beaches that tell very different stories of working people and a delicious Welsh delicacy.

(rattling) (pleasant music) ♪ I'm in South Wales at a beautiful beach called Llansteffan.

It's right on the estuary where the river Towy empties into the sea, making it the perfect place for an activity that goes back over 2,000 years.

Cockling.

Now, in today's digital age, cockling may seem like an anachronism, but it created an industry here that dates back to Roman times.

It delivers a delicious delicacy, and for some people here, it's still very much a way of life.

(mellow music) This traditional coastline livelihood is solely based on the modest cockle.

These heart-shaped bi-valve mollusks are an excellent source of protein and Omega-3 fats.

♪ During the 19th century, hundreds of pickers could be found with panniered donkeys out on the sandy flats of South Wales.

Back then, with most men down mines or in factories, almost all the cocklers were women, but with traditional industries now largely gone, it's a lot more gender balanced these days.

I'm meeting Ashley Jones, who's family have been cockling for generations.

The tide has gone out and it's nearly a mile walk across the sandy sea floor to where Ashley is gathering cockles.

(rattling) Looks like hard work actually.

-Certainly is.

-How much weight have you got -do you think?

-Uh, we've probably got about 250 kilos each at the moment.

-Oh, is that good?

-Yeah, it's okay, not too bad.

(Anita) Can we talk about this incredible landscape?

Am I on another planet?

-'Cause it feels like I am.

-Yeah, it's fantastic down here.

It's one of the most beautiful areas in Wales I think -and in the UK.

-So long have you been cockling?

(Ashley) I left school at 16, so I've been doing it, uh, probably 20 years now, a bit more.

But yeah, my family have been in it all their lives.

Um, I think I'm the fifth or sixth generation that we know of to be working in the industry.

Uh, my mom and dad before me, uh, my grandfather, Selwyn, um, and his--and his wife, Linda.

Um, she's still alive, she's 90 at the moment.

She finished gathering cockles when she was 76, and she really worked hard through her life gathering cockles, but before that were the women of the area always gathering the cockles.

The men went to the mines to mine coal and the women went out to see if they could, uh, try to get some money together to feed the family home.

It was women that would come out here?

(Ashley) Women party, yeah, we've got old photographs there, and my dad tells the stories of in his day even, coming up with horse and cart.

Uh, before that it would be donkey.

Um, we've got photos of ladies walking out barefooted, no Wellingtons, using the same tools -that we do today.

-Unbelievable, I mean, it was hard enough getting across -in my Wellies, you know?

-Yeah, yeah.

(Anita) These are not your ordinary women, are they?

-Oh, definitely not-- -These are a special breed.

(Ashley) When my grandmother said, "Go to bed," I went to bed.

You didn't mess with her.

(soft music) (Ashley) But today it's-- it's commercialized now.

It's a job, it's a living, it's a livelihood, and, um, these guys in particular have to come out here, which then supply factories which supply wholesalers and supply the public.

So, um, yeah, it's changed quite a lot, uh, even in my time.

In the last 20 years we've seen, um, most of the cockles from-- just going into the local market -now all get exported to Spain.

-And why is that?

-Are we just not a nation of--?

-We've just probably done enough cockles in--in the UK.

Spain has a huge appetite for, uh, shellfish as a whole and fish as a whole.

-Do you get a better markup?

-Yeah, the fishermen -get a premium price.

-Do you like them?

No, I don't.

If you handle as many cockles as I do, I don't suppose you would either.

Um, yeah, I think it's one of those things that been around them too long, picking them, cooking them, selling them, and in the end you go off them.

(pleasant music) Ashley, look, I'm pulling my sleeves up.

-Oh, you sure you wanna do this?

-This is it, it's happening.

Yeah, absolutely, come on, let's give it a go.

If it was good enough for these hardy Welsh women, let's see.

I mean, I'm from Yorkshire, so-- -Ah, you'll be all right.

-I'll be all right.

I'll be right.

(Ashley) Okay, so what we're gonna do is if we just draw a line with the back of the rake -just to make a semi-circle.

-Oh, it's getting-- -it's getting technical.

-No, this is for learners, this is, this is cockle picking for dummies.

-Good, that's about right.

-Right, so if we hold the rake just--well, whichever hand you are, left or right.

You're just gonna start, so just use this part of the rake just to kind of rip it away.

Not too deep, just very shallow.

That's it, just take the-- that's it, little bit.

Just slowly, go back again and start again.

-Oh, start again.

-Right, right, yeah.

(Anita) Oh, I see, bring them towards me.

-Yeah, and take it all out.

-Yes.

(Ashley) All right, fantastic, you're a natural.

-There's loads.

-Yeah, you're not going back to Yorkshire, you're staying here.

(chuckling) (Anita) Oh, they're so close to the surface... -Surface.

-...aren't they?

(Ashley) Oh, you're doing well there, here, look at that.

Okay, so you've got enough there now.

-Yeah.

-Right, so now you just kind of swish them into the-- to the riddle.

-That's it, nice and slowly.

-Into the riddle.

(Ashley) Fantastic.

Get every single one.

-Come on.

-Don't let 'em swim away.

There we are, you've nearly got them all in.

-Yeah.

-Right.

So now, that's it, try to pick it up.

(Anita) Here we go, come on.

Come on, come on.

(rustling) -How's that?

-That's fantastic.

-There's not many in there... -No, it doesn't matter.

-...actually.

-You gotta keep shaking them.

Get all the small out.

Okay, now quick wash. -What, with that?

-Yeah, or just wash them in the stream, that's it, yeah, perfect.

And then they can go into the bucket.

-All right.

-So yeah, if you do that about 1,000 times a day, you should have-- (Anita) If I keep going I'll be here till the year 2027, but I might fill one bag.

-Right, into a bucket.

-Yeah.

-This one?

-Yep.

(clattering) -Right.

-Now have another go.

(Anita) We're off.

-Next one.

-Okay.

(rattling) (soft guitar music) ♪ -If you find an open one-- -Yeah.

-Let me just get these two.

-Let's try it.

Can we try one, fresh?

-Oh, we need to put them in-- -No, yeah, probably best -to be cooked.

-Can I try it?

-Come on.

-Well, it's up to you.

(Anita) It's a proper Welsh delicacy.

Look at your face, Ashley!

-I'm gonna do it.

-I'm having no part -to play in this.

-Mm.

♪ It's delicious.

-What's wrong with that?

-Do you like them, yeah?

Anyway, don't make me feel weird about it now that it's gone down.

(Ashley) I had no part to play in that.

(Anita) And there's no toilets around here.

(Ashley) No, no, you got a long way to go.

(chuckling) (classical music) It's not a great idea to eat raw cockles.

So I'm off in search of cooked ones, courtesy of Carol Watts, a cockle stall owner in Swansea Market.

♪ -Hello, Carol.

-Hello there, how are you?

-I'm very well.

-Good.

-What a beautiful stall.

-Thank you very much.

(Carol) Cockles and laverbread, they're famous.

Cockles and laver-- well cockles I know all about 'cause I've just been picking them.

-Can I try one?

-You've got to.

I'm gonna put some in here for you to try.

-There we go.

-Try some pepper and vinegar on them as well, absolutely gorgeous.

-Pepper?

-And some forks, a bit of pepper, a bit of vinegar.

-Vinegar for sure.

-Yes.

-Ah, now we're talking.

-You have them in the Swansea Market (indistinct) cockles.

Right, let's do it.

Right, fresh Welsh cockles.

-Here we go.

-Yes.

-Mm.

-Moreish.

-Mm.

-Lovely.

-Just salty and delicious.

-Yes.

I love cockles, I eat 'em all day.

My sister, she don't eat 'em at all.

-Really, that's hilarious.

-She sells them, -but she doesn't eat them.

-How many generations of cockle stall, cockle people are you?

-What's the phrase?

-Well, it was my great grandmother, and then it was my grandparents, and then there was me and my sisters here, and my children and my grandchildren help out.

(Anita) Wow, so that's at least five generations.

-I know, I know.

-It's interesting that this is the work done by women, -you know?

-It is, it is.

And it's really shaped this community, hasn't it?

(Carol) Definitely, definitely.

Incredible.

Still using traditional tools and working by hand, the cockle industry offers a vision of Welsh beach life that's hardly changed in two millennia.

(pleasant music) About 70 miles to the east, though, is a beach called Lavernock that tells the story of a brand new industry.

♪ It's the place, you might say, where the digital age began when a bold, young, Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, set up the most significant radio experiment in history.

Now most people think of Marconi as sending radio messages to distant places from Cornwall, but years before that, it was from right here in Southern Wales that he sent his first successful radio transmission across water, and it changed the world forever.

(birds chirping) Marconi believed that newly discovered electromagnetic waves could be used to create radio signals that could carry messages great distances, even across water.

He came to Britain as an exile because his own Italian government saw his ideas as far-fetched fantasies, so Marconi needed to prove to British officials that his radio equipment worked.

The perfect location was here at Lavernock Point.

One small team of engineers was three miles away on Flat Home Island with the transmitter.

Another team, including Marconi, was on the beach at Lavernock with the receiver.

For two days the equipment failed.

Then on the 13th of May, 1897, they found success.

To help me grasp the significance of the event, I'm meeting a professor of Welsh history, Iwan Morus, at the very site where Marconi carried out his experiment.

(Iwan) As far as the Victorians themselves were concerned, they were the people who really were in the business of making the future.

I mean, this was an age of huge, massive technological transformation.

And then, of course, in the 1890s we get, you know, what's happening here, what starts here with Marconi.

Having this kind of landscape and seascape mattered because what you really needed to do was persuade people that you could send messages across the water.

Some of the crew is out there.

-Whereabouts?

-Um, on Flat Home, and they had the transmitter with them.

Then here, at Lavernock Point, there's Marconi and his co-experimenters, and then they start the experiments here -and it doesn't work.

-Disaster.

(Iwan) They keep on at it.

They're trying to pick up a signal.

They carry the receiving apparatus down to the beach.

They gave themselves a longer aerial essentially, and as soon as they've done that, then it worked.

They received the signal, you know, from over there, and the rest, so to speak, is history.

(soft mandolin music) (Anita) It must have been thrilling for Marconi to decipher that first message.

♪ To get a flavor of that moment, I'm meeting up with Glyn Jones and other members of the Barry Amateur Radio Society.

♪ They're setting up a re-enactment of Marconi's experiment in typically challenging Welsh weather.

♪ In 1897, the transmitter team were three miles away on Flat Home Island, of course, but today they're just across the field from where Glyn and I will receive the message.

♪ Glyn, this is a very good setup we've got here.

Would you describe yourself as a Marconi nut?

(Glyn) Yes, end of story.

(chuckling) (Anita) What's the fascination?

(Glyn) It is what happened in this location.

It was the birth of communication.

So, Glyn, we're gonna recreate what happened in 1897.

-How are we gonna do that?

-What we are going to do to try and get you to get the same feeling of that amazing sound to come across the Channel, but we're gonna do it here in Morse.

Basically I've got to learn Morse code in the next 10 seconds to understand -what the message is.

-You will learn a few letters easily.

(Anita) Okay, so what's this setup that we've got?

Explain what you've done here.

(Glyn) What Marconi built, he didn't know about aerials, he didn't know about anything, so he got a piece of copper, and I couldn't quite get-- afford a piece of copper, so I made a piece of tin.

-Fair enough.

-So hung from a pole... -Yeah.

-...with some wires, going down to a coil, which was a receiver.

-Yeah.

-He had to receive the Morse code.

And it goes through this little gadget here called a coherer, and the coherer allowed electrons to flow through.

-Shall we do it?

-Brilliant.

Shall we see if we can actually-- if I can decipher a message?

-Yeah.

-'Cause they're do-- they're gonna send it from down there.

(Glyn) Yeah, they're gonna send the very first signal.

(Anita) Yeah, can they do one letter at a time -really slowly?

-Yes.

(Anita) Right, okay, here we go.

You know, they could just send me it to my telephone.

(chuckling) (quirky music) The radio operator starts sending Marconi's first message: "Are you ready?"

(beeping) Da-da, okay, that's "A."

Da-da-da, that's an "R." (beeping) Dot, dot, dash, it's gonna be a "U," isn't it?

Because now I can start figuring out "R-U."

(beeping) What was that, what was the--?

What's it doing?

Da-da, da-da-da.

I can't--I can't find it.

I don't know what's happening.

It's so hard.

This is impossible.

The operator starts sending a second message, slower.

Da-da-da, three dots, "S." ♪ Dot, dot, dash, "U."

(Glyn) Next one.

(Anita) Doo, do, dash, dot.

"N." (beeping) Do, doo, do.

Ah, "W." -Right, let's go, next.

-Next.

(Anita) Do, do, do, "Send us news."

That is brilliant!

I'm so excited, and I live in a digital age where I can send a message like that and that has just thrilled me.

Imagine what Marconi-- what must have happened that day.

(Glyn) You're thrilling me, the look in your eyes, The--we're--I'm picking up your body language, -it's thrilling me.

-Yes, that's so-- I can't even-- I mean, no wonder you're obsessed.

You know, this is communication, that what they discovered here in 1897, what they did has changed the world.

-Yep.

-Changed the world.

Wow, wow!

(whimsical music) In 1897, having patented his wireless equipment, Marconi founded a hugely successful communications company.

♪ The message he received on this Welsh beach over a century ago created the world we now inhabit of wireless, mobile phones and the digital age.

Further up the coast, one of Wales' most beautiful beaches inspired a different kind of creativity.

The literary works of one of the nation's best loved poets.

♪ (pleasant music) ♪ On the gorgeous beaches of South Wales, I've encountered high-speed adventurers, royal exiles, traditional seafood, and technological brilliance.

Now I'm on the truly epic beach of Rhosilli, a three-mile stretch of sand described by a national newspaper as the supermodel of British beaches.

It was a place that inspired the legendary Swansea-born writer Dylan Thomas.

Now his wild life and poetry and hard drinking have been well documented, but for those outside Wales, they may be surprised to learn that he was also hugely influenced by its beaches.

♪ Descriptions of coastal life are found throughout his popular literary works, such as Under Milk Wood.

♪ To better understand what Rhosilli Beach meant to Dylan Thomas, I'm meeting up with his great grandson, Charlie, his granddaughter, Hannah Ellis, and Jeff Towns, a leading expert on the poet.

So Hannah, what's it like for you, you know, you were on this beach, this is the area that's in your blood.

-Yeah.

-You know, your grandfather, this great poet.

(Hannah) When you just said that, "It's in your blood," that's exactly how I feel 'cause it's something about the sea.

Being here, I almost feel déjà vu.

I--I've been here before, I know it.

(Jeff) He liked the beach, you know, I think it did affect him more than the countryside.

So what was his connection to this area and the beach in particular?

(Jeff) Well, there's these two stories that he writes in this book that are both set here.

Um, one is a really melancholy story, but the first one that's in the book is called "Extraordinary Little Cough."

He writes it in the first person.

It's really autobiographical.

Him and three mates come in a lorry from Swansea to here with tents and cookers and a wind-up gramophone, and they camp here, and the notion is they're here for two weeks, they're gonna enjoy themselves.

And the first day they're here they meet two bullies from their school, Brazell and Skully, and one of the boys, who's called George Hooping, uh, because he coughs all the time, uh, they challenge him to run the length of this beach to get rid of him so that there is a few girls turned up and they can start making a play for the girls.

(Anita) He liked the beach and he liked women.

(Jeff) "One: I am a Welshman, two: I am a drunkard, three: I am a lover of the human race, especially women."

That's a quote.

(Anita) That's a great quote.

Charlie, what's it like to hear all these stories of your great grandad?

(Charlie) I have never really heard any of these before.

-Well, that's good.

-So this must be brilliant then.

Like, what's it like hearing these stories?

(Charlie) Well, I thought Dylan was a smart, intelligent person, but this has given me a new side of him that he was just a bit mad, and just he was, like, a mad scientist, -but instead a mad poet.

-Yes, I love it, I love it.

-Good.

-I understand why he wanted to write here, 'cause I think the atmosphere here is very compelling to write about and I think it's very appealing to an audience to read about as well.

And how old are you, Charlie?

(Charlie) Uh, I turned 12 a few weeks ago.

(Anita) Well, you've got a great way with words as well, haven't you?

Have we got another poet in the family, do you think?

(Charlie) I don't know yet.

(Anita) That's a lot of pressure, isn't it?

(wondrous music) Dylan's love of the sea led him to live on the South Wales coast, the town of Laugharne.

It's thought by some to be the inspiration for the fictional fishing village where his famous radio drama, Under Milk Wood, is set.

(Richard) "To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and Bible-black, the cobbled streets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloe black, slow, black, crow black, fishing-boat-bobbing sea.

♪ The houses are blind as moles, and all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now."

♪ (Anita) Hannah takes me to Dylan's home, the Old Boat House, right by the beach in Laugharne.

So, tell me about this rather fantastic looking place, Hannah.

(Hannah) So this is where my grandparents lived for four years, um, and they lived here with their two sons and daughter, and their daughter was my mom, and her bedroom was on the far right, -just down there.

-What did this place mean to your grandfather, Dylan Thomas, -and his--and his family?

-My grandfather knew the area, he knew Carmarthenshire because his mother and father's families had farmland just across the estuary over there, and he was here throughout his childhood holidays, so he knew this area already, so by the time he moved here, this was completely familiar to him.

(Anita) Now, your grandmother, Caitlin, she wasn't from Wales, but she moved here.

-Yes.

-So I wonder what her experience was like living in this place.

(Hannah) It wasn't quite as perfect here for her as it was for my grandfather, really.

I think she liked the sun and so the winter months isolated in the house there with three children on her own while her husband was off touring America would've been difficult.

How she turned the boat house, which actually at the time must have been very cold and on a drizzly day quite grim, but she turned it into a home.

She brought color and she brought life into it.

And the writing shed was actually originally a garage for the first car in Laugharne, so it had no windows, but she knew just how important this view would be for my grandfather, so she requested -that windows be put in there.

-I love that detail.

So it was Caitlin, your grandmother, who put the windows in so that the great Dylan Thomas could be inspired by this landscape.

(Hannah) Yeah and she knew just how important writing was to him, it was his world, so she used to set up the writing shed with him with boiled sweets and a tiser to drink, and just tidied all the papers and got it all ready for him -every morning.

-Wonderful to hear that story.

I'd love to see where he wrote.

(pleasant music) I'm still just taking in the view of this beach.

It just goes on for miles and miles.

(Hannah) Yeah, it does, it's very special, it really is.

You can really see why this inspired my grandfather.

(Anita) Are we allowed to step in, or is it--is it a sacred place?

Well, I'm officially giving you permission.

(Anita) Amazing.

Yeah, I know-- I know the right person -who can get me in.

-You know the family.

(laughing) (Anita) I'm actually going in with great trepidation, nerves, and excitement.

♪ Oh, wow.

Oh, this is great!

♪ -This is incredible.

-Yeah.

(Anita) What a brilliant space.

Gosh, I mean, this is an artist's studio, isn't it?

-This is-- -It really is.

(Anita) It's just how you'd imagine it to be.

-Oh, look, sweets!

-Yeah, well, I told you -about his sweet tooth.

-Sweets.

-Boiled sweets.

-Cigarettes, pencils.

-Is this his writing?

-Yeah.

-Look how neat it is.

-Ah.

It feels so special to be talking about him in his place.

Just standing here with you, having heard all the stories, you know, we're really in the world of Dylan Thomas, staring out at that beach there, and that is what inspired him.

(Hannah) Yeah, by the sea is where he wrote everything that mattered in the sense that he couldn't write when it was busy and bustling.

He could only write when-- with all the sounds and the smells of the sea.

(Anita) Oh.

Yeah, I'm moving in.

(Hannah) Yeah, I'll join you.

(chuckling) (Anita) It's very special.

Thank you, Hannah, thank you.

-No, thank you for coming.

-Feels very-- I feel very privileged.

Sadly, it was from here that Dylan made his fateful journey to New York, where he died of pneumonia in 1953 at the age of just 39.

A tragic early death that turned this brilliant talent into a great legend.

(wondrous music) It's a moving end to my fantastic journey across the beaches of South Wales.

Along the way I've discovered where exiles and adventurers pushed the boundaries of speed, grabbed vast political power, continued a traditional livelihood, advanced our use of technology, and found inspiration for some of our best literary works.

These have been stories of passion, of risk taking, of people putting their lives on the line, but it's the women who stand out for me, whether it's Margaret Beaufort, who fought tooth and nail for her son to found a royal dynasty, or Caitlin Thomas, who supported her great poet husband.

But the stand-out has to be the cockle pickers, the women who supported their husbands while they went down the mines.

For me, they are my heroines, the everyday, hard-working women of Wales.

♪ (whimsical music) (waves gently crashing) ♪ (bright music)