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The Channel is a reflection on the stretch of water that both separates us from and connects us to Europe.

Omnibus of a five-episode series examining how this waterway has affected our British identity through time, and continues to do so.

1. FROM LANDSCAPE TO SEASCAPE

Sanjeev Gupta goes back 450,000 years, to a time when our ancestors could walk across a rock ridge from the chalk cliffs near Calais to our own at Dover.

2. LITERARY PASSAGES

Dominic Rainsford explores what the writings of Dickens, Hugo and Barnes reveal about our relationship with the Channel.

3. CROSS-CHANNEL JOURNAL

Writer Alba Arikha, born in Paris and living in London, reflects on her own experiences of crossing the Channel and compares them with the accounts of others.

4. THE SHARED SEA

Historian Dr Renaud Morieux examines where in the Channel England ends and France begins and how that understanding has influenced peace, conflict and trade.

5. MAKING THE CROSSING

Christine Finn, who covered the Channel for local press and TV in the 1980s and 90s, examines recent developments in the UK's relationship with the Strait as its portal to Europe.

Music composed by Phil Channell

Producer: Marya Burgess

First broadcast on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 in March 2018.

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