Warship: Life in the Royal Navy - Season 1

In this dramatic first episode, Julia Bradbury climbs aboard the newest, biggest and most powerful ship in the fleet: the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The ship is leading the biggest exercise since the cold war, and Julia gets a taste of what life is like on board for its 1400 crew.

The Prince of Wales' is home to eight F-35 jets, and Julia gets first-hand experience of just how powerful they are on the flight deck – one of the most dangerous places to work anywhere in the world – as they take off from just metres away from her. From launching jets to chopping veg, Julia also heads below decks to the galley where she discovers what's involved in cooking a Sunday roast for nearly a thousand hungry sailors.

Former Royal Marine JJ Chalmers heads back to his old stomping ground, the Marine Commando Training Centre in Devon, where ordinary civilians are turned into elite commandos. It's been 18 years since he completed his training and earned the coveted green beret, but not much has changed as he follows a group of new recruits being pushed to the limit.

JJ then heads to Portsmouth to discover more about a controversial moment in the navy's recent history. The last time an enemy ship was torpedoed and sunk by a British vessel was during the Falklands Conflict, when submarine HMS Conqueror engaged the Argentinian Light Cruiser, the General Belgrano. JJ meets a veteran from the submarine's crew who was on board at the time, to hear first-hand what happened beneath the waves of the icy south Atlantic.

Also in Portsmouth, Julia dons her Navy uniform again – but this time she's handed a rifle and razor-sharp bayonet too. She's learning drill marching, an essential skill to build discipline amongst raw naval recruits. Can Julia keep in-step with the recruits and, more importantly, keep the training instructors happy?

Finally, JJ visits a naval institution that cements the royal link to the navy: Dartmouth's Britannia Royal Naval College. It's on its croquet lawns that royal romances flourished, and is the place where both King Charles and Prince William completed their officer training before both leaving their mark on the ceiling of the grand wardroom.

In this episode, JJ is deep in the Devon woods with latest troop of Royal Marines recruits attempting to earn the coveted green beret, as they come under heavy fire on a tactical training exercise.

On board giant aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in the North Sea, Julia gets a chance to steer the biggest warship in the fleet. And she heads below decks to meet the sailors who live in one of the ship's largest shared sleeping quarters and discovers what it's like to live on a warship as the women prepare for an inspection.

As well as the Royal Navy's surface fleet, some of its most important and clandestine work happens beneath the waves. Reporter Rob Bell is given special access to spend four days on board HMS Trenchant, one of the UK's nuclear armed submarines, as its crew prepares for an upcoming top secret deployment. It's a tense stay on board, as the crew are forced to dive to evade a foreign warship, and Rob is taken inches away from the submarine's nuclear weapon arsenal.

Back on dry land in Portsmouth, JJ steps on board a landing craft that played a crucial part in the allied invasion of Europe on D-Day.

It's here that JJ also explores the oldest and probably most famous ship in the navy's fleet – HMS Victory. She's the ceremonial flagship of the Royal Navy and perhaps surprisingly still has a commanding officer today. JJ steps on board and into the past to see what life was like for sailors in the time of perhaps the most famous Admiral of all time, Lord Nelson

In this final episode, JJ is put to the ultimate gruelling test at the Marine Commando Training Centre, where his military career began 18 years ago. Back then he passed with flying colours, and now, despite the injuries he sustained in Afghanistan, he decides to take on the Endurance Course once again. It's a punishing 6.5 mile run along muddy paths, bogs, tunnels and obstacles. But has this former Royal Marine still got the physical and mental strength to pass the test?

From intense training to high-tech weapons, JJ also discovers what the future of naval warfare might look like. The Royal Navy have a special department dedicated to testing the weapons of the future - Navy X. Run from a sleek warship, Commanding Officer Michael and his crew are pushing the boat out with the latest remote controlled technology. JJ is allowed to have a go at remotely driving an attack boat with a fully mechanised machine gun mounted on its bow, as well as discovering how remotely controlled drones are now being used in the front line of battles in Ukraine.

In the North Sea, Julia's time on the mighty HMS Prince of Wales is coming to an end. After successfully leading Steadfast Defender, the largest NATO exercise since the cold war, Julia helps the ship's crew as they prepare to enter a foreign port for the final leg of her epic journey.

From Britain's biggest and newest warships Julia heads to one of the most famous warships of the 20th Century, HMS Belfast. Now a museum on the River Thames in London, she's meets some of the ship's veterans to get a reminder of what life was like for sailors around the time of the Second World War.

The Mary Rose is one of England's most famous warships. Sailing for more than 30 years during the reign of Henry VIII, she sank during a battle with the French off the coast of Portsmouth. JJ heads to the museum to learn what life was like for a Tudor sailor and to discover how the ship may have met her fate.