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Utilizing rare archive film that has never before been made public, The Great Liner Series will bring the magic and experience of the glory days of shipping to your television screen.

To create this unique series, producer Des Cox spent over fifteen years searching the world for rare film. When beginning his long search, Des discovered to his horror that most of the old film had been destroyed years ago. For instance, when Cunard concluded paying for the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, the company destroyed its entire film archive—no one knows why. Despite such setbacks, Des continued his painstaking search. It took him over two years to make his first film discovery, located in the crypt of a London church where it had been stored for safety during the second world war and then forgotten.

Unfortunately, the really hard work had just begun. Because most of the film he found was old, some dating back almost one hundred years, it often had deteriorated so badly that not only was it too brittle to show, but the images the film contained were no longer visible. This meant cleaning and restoring the film frame by frame, and then using computers to enhance the images and bring them back to life. For example, one of the films restored was shot by the manager of a small provincial bank in rural England who was aboard the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage in 1936. It is the only film of its kind known to be in existence. It took Des nine months to painstakingly clean and restore this treasure, which even the British National Film Archive considered to be beyond repair. Having restored it to its former glory, Des then faced the challenge of trying to recreate the appropriate sounds to accompany the scenes: the dockside and onboard sounds as well as the mighty roar of the Queen Mary’s two magnificent whistles. This sound editing took another two years to finish. Now we can bring to your screen the most remarkable scenes that capture this unique voyage as if you were there.

Des went on to discover other great finds in some amazing locations, including North America, Europe, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, and even on an old abandoned farm in a remote part of Africa. These films show ports and estuaries full of ships of every shape and size; from the great transatlantic super-liners that once vied with one another for Atlantic supremacy, to the ships that carried millions of immigrants to the New World— America, Canada, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America—down to the humble freighters and tramp-ships that once sailed the world in tens of thousands. These ships were operated by such famous companies as the United States Lines, Cunard, Holland America, Hamburg America Line, White Star, Canadian Pacific, Lykes Lines, Matson Lines, P&O, Orient Lines, British India, Union-Castle, Royal Mail, and many others. It was an age when every sailing of a great liner was almost a national event—an age when ships like the Titanic, Normandie, France, Bremen, Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary were more famous than today’s Hollywood movie stars. This series represents the culmination of one man’s dogged determination to make sure that the memory of those days will live forever.

These extraordinary films show the heyday of shipping and the Golden Years of overseas travel as never before seen; an age when every sailing was one of great excitement, taking people to a world of adventure and romance. Future generations may view past decades and experience what it was like to have been one of the excited passengers aboard the Queen Mary’s Maiden Voyage in 1936 and experience the halcyon days of the great liners. While each episode is a complete story unto itself, the entire Great Liner Series presents the thrilling and unique history of the golden age of ships and shipping. It is truly a remarkable collection.