Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There have many beautiful ships to have graced the seas of our lonely planet; some have had voyages that are memorable, a few to have been engaged in active serve as well as been the courier of hopeful human dreams, and a selection that have had their name carried across time for the mystery, for the events that surround their fate, their destiny, and their tragic end.

There is though surely no other ship that has caught the imagination of the public, past and present, than the illustrious, and ill-fated Titanic.

There is a whole host of films, television series, audio dramas, books and other media which have delved deep into the loss of the pride of the White Star line since its sinking in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean in April 1912, many of them truly informative, some down right epic in their nature, especially the films A Night To Remember, the 1997 mammoth spectacular from James Cameron’s Titanic, and the excellent The Other Side Of The Night: The Carpathia, The Californian, And The Night the Titanic Was Lost by Daniel Allen Bitler, but few have found a way to not only be informative and chilling with equal sincerity, and without, as in the case of the phenomenal amount of films released will want to portray, showing the disaster in terms of neglecting the very human stories that encompass the power of storytelling.

To produce the 13-part series, narrated by Paul McGann, Titanic: Ship Of Dreams in such a way that the very nature of the haunting ordeal, the almost hubristic way in which the fates aligned to bring the manmade behemoth into direct collision with nature, is so absorbing, so heartfelt, and one that deals with the human cost with profound empathy, might have been considered one unlikely to capture the listener’s hearts; and yet through the incredible writing of the team behind Noiser Productions, and the comforting voice of the admired man behind the eighth incarnation of the erstwhile mad man in a box from the long running serial Doctor Who, that sense of completion is assured and achieved with unrestrained compassion and sympathy.

It is only right that Paul McGann lends his voice to the distinguished retelling of the moments, the history, and the memories of those who survived the harrowing ordeal, with his own great uncle Jimmy being who was employed as a trimmer on ship, the sense of gravitas at times is overwhelming, the listener cannot but help be drawn in to the heroism of many, and the possibility of cowardice, of the bleaker side of human action, when considering the role played for example of some of the more senior men aboard the doomed vessel.

A sensational series, and with expert analysis by a range of Titanic experts and admirers of the ship, including Julian Fellows whose own four-part television series garnered much attention upon release, Titanic: Ship Of Dreams is a fascinating, deeper insight into that terrible night over a hundred years ago, and one that still resonates across Time.

Ian D. Hall