The Harbour

Thursday 13 March, 9.00 pm to 10.00 pm, Channel One. Part 1 of 6. Subtitled.

A storm closes the port on the night the fleet is due home, and the harbour master has to decide who goes out to look.

The first episode takes its time. For twenty minutes we watch a town do what it does on any winter evening: the fish market hoses down, the school bus drops its last children at the top of the hill, the radio in the harbour office reads out the shipping forecast. Then the forecast changes, and nobody says very much.

Why watch

It was filmed over one winter on the north coast, with a cast drawn largely from the town itself, and it shows. Nothing is hurried and nothing is explained twice.

• Six parts, Thursdays at 9.00 pm
• Repeated on Sundays at 10.15 pm on Channel Two
• Not suitable for young children

Setting your video recorder

If your recorder takes programme codes, enter 48213 for tonight's episode or 48214 for the Sunday repeat. Allow five minutes either side.