This documentary is a meat-and-two-veg slice of British television, comfortable and familiar and sturdy. It’s the sort of TV that doesn’t ask much of you, only that you raise an eyebrow, nod along, and say yes, that is an interesting fact about bananas, I’d never thought about that before. The statistics are plentiful and free-flowing, so much so that without them being breathlessly relayed every few seconds, you suspect it could have been a 20-minute show. Even so: 3m bananas! Which must be stored at exactly 14C (57F), so they don’t ripen too soon!
Dover is the UK’s biggest ferry port. According to the film-makers, 10 million passengers pass through it every year, as does a third of Britain’s trade with the EU. During the summer, upwards of 10,000 freight vehicles and 15,000 passenger vehicles make use of it daily. It’s a busy place, with multiple purposes, and many different teams, attempting to form a gigantic sort of interlocking puzzle.
