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Titanic is a four-part serial created by BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Stafford-Clark (Warriors; The Way We Live Now; Bleak House) and written by O and Emmy winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park; Downton Abbey) to mark the hundredth anniversary of the world's most famous maritime disaster in April 1912. It sets out to tell the story not just of a single ship, but of an entire society--one that was heading towards its own nemesis in the shape of the First World War as carelessly as Titanic towards the iceberg. This world, soon to vanish forever, is brought alive by a cast of over 80, featuring the cream of acting talent from Britain and beyond, including Linus Roache (Law & Order; Batman Begins), Geraldine Somerville (Harry Potter; Cracker), Celia Imrie (Bridget Jones's Diary; Kingdom), Toby Jones (My Week with Marilyn; Tinker Tailor Soldier ; Captain America), Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Tudors; The Commitments), Perdita Weeks (The Promise; The Tudors; Lost in Austen), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Waterloo Road; Emmerdale), Steven Waddington (y Hollow; Last of the Mohicans), Lyndsey Marshal (Hereafter; Being Human; Rome), Ruth Bradley (Primeval), Peter McDonald (The Damned United; City of Vice) and Timothy West (Bleak House; Ever After; The Day of the Jackal) amongst many others. All human life is on Titanic as she sets out on her maiden voyage. The upper-class family with their suffragette daughter and their warring servants; the wealthy elite of American society; the Irish lawyer in Second Class with his embittered wife; the young cabin steward and the impetuous Italian waiter who falls for her; the Catholic engineer fleeing Belfast with his wife and family to escape the sectarian conflict; the mysterious stranger in Steerage fleeing who knows what. And then there are the officers and crew. As their stories interweave and we find our first impressions are often undermined by what we learn, there is one thing that we know for certain and they do not--that not all of them will survive. Extra Content - 4 x 60 eps with Audio commentary episode 1: Nigel Stafford-Clark, Julian Fellowes, Jon Jones - Titanic - The Making of (35 mins approx) - The Curse of the Titanic Sisters ( 60 mins approx) - Photo gallery - Character and crew profiles - Time lapse set build - Words of the Titanic (60 mins approx) The Curse of the Titanic Sisters They were conceived and created to become the world's biggest, grandest and safest ocean liners: three super liners--The Olympic, Titanic and Britannic--launched and sold as the ships that would never sink. But despite this boast all three were involved in maritime disasters soon after launching. And two of the three--Titanic and Britannic--were lost forever in the most dramatic of circumstances. This one hour film investigates the doomed history and flawed design of the three White Star Liners, from inception to disaster. And it launches a new forensic examination of the wreck of the Britannic, designed to be both bigger and grander than the Titanic. Britannic was the last of the three sisters to launch and extensively modified in the aftermath of the Titanic loss, in order to make sure, unlike her sister, she would prove truly "unsinkable". Yet Britannic was lost in 1916 following a mysterious explosion. On a calm sea and under a clear blue sky, she sunk three times faster than her infamous sister Titanic, despite all her extra defences. By exploring areas deep inside the massive interior of the Britannic, compartments unseen and undisturbed since the day of her sinking, incredible new evidence is revealed to prove what caused the initial explosion and why the doomed ship disappeared beneath the waves so fast. And in doing so new light is thrown on exactly why the three ships created to rule the waves--Titanic, Olympic and Britannic--were actually doomed to fail from the moment their plans were first drawn up. This one hour film investigates the doomed history and flawed design of the three White Star Liners, from inception to disaster. And it launches a new forensic examination of the wreck of the Britannic, designed to be both bigger and grander than the Titanic. Britannic was the last of the three sisters to launch and extensively modified in the aftermath of the Titanic loss, in order to make sure, unlike her sister, she would prove truly "unsinkable". Yet Britannic was lost in 1916 following a mysterious explosion. On a calm sea and under a clear blue sky, she sunk three times faster than her infamous sister Titanic, despite all her extra defences--so what went wrong? From .co.uk ----------- Comfortably one of ITV’s most ambitious drama productions of all time, Titanic is a four part miniseries, from the pen of Downton Abbey scribe Julian Fellowes. Its is certainly dramatic, too. As well as focusing on the well-known disaster of the sinking of the famous liner itself, Titanic boasts a massive cast, who tell a series of interweaving stories. There’s plenty of human drama on board the boat, and there’s a dissection of the attitudes and segregation of society that’s firmly in the production’s crosshairs. Fortunately, the production values match the scale of what’s being attempted here, and the exquisite Blu-ray presentation offers a showcase for the hard work that’s been done on bringing the drama to the screen. The picture transfer in particular is strong, and the detail shines through. Given the scale of the production, it’s also refreshing that the disc has no shortage of material that looks at how it was all done. There’s a meaty making of piece, for instance, that runs to over half an hour, and accompanying that is an even longer piece, examining the stories of the sister boats to the Titanic. There’s a lot more than those, too, and the extras alone offer terrific value. But it’s the main drama that’s the key interest. It’s a little tricky to follow the multitude of characters at times, and an active brain is helpful while watching it. But if you’re willing to invest the time and thought, then Titanic is a classy piece of drama. --Jon Foster