Where's Gene Kelly when you need him? Robert Carlyle stars in this doomsday tale, where the meeting of a powerful storm and dangerously high seas results in a tidal surge of biblical proportions sweeping down the east coast of England en route for London. With the Thames Barrier breached and panic mounting, marine defence expert Rob (Carlyle) has to think fast if the capital is to avoid ultimate catastrophe.

Martin Sheen and Charles Furness star in this drama about the dramatic sinking of the Nantucket whaleship Essex that was attacked by a sperm whale in 1820. An old Tom Nickerson (Sheen) recounts the story of when he and his crew were the subjects of a vicious attack by a normally peaceful animal and how they were left to fight for their lives as their ship and all their equipment sunk to the ocean floor. After the attack it was three months before the surviving men were rescued and as Tom (played, as a young man, by Furness) and his fellow survivors waited patiently, watching the days pass by, they were forced to endure a great deal to stay alive.