Katie is waiting outside the cinema for Ben, who is lost! Katie talks to him on a mobile phone and he manages to find her using directions and landmarks. Ben explains that this method of finding your way works in a town — but what happens in situations where there are no landmarks to guide you? The programme will look at how to find your way using bearings. Katie introduces the crucial piece of equipment: a compass.

01.05—02.25

Graphics link the points of the compass to angles measured clockwise from north.

02.25—04.25

Ben boards the ferry Dublin Swift, due to sail from Holyhead to Dublin. He visits the bridge and meets Captain Alan Salisbury. Alan explains that the course of the ship is set to an ideal bearing, but that the actual bearing followed changes throughout the voyage. Constant adjustments have to be made to allow for the effects on their course of weather, currents, traffic and so on. We see several instruments recording the ship’s course as a bearing.

04.25—07.00

As the crew concentrate on docking the vessel, Ben shows us how to draw and measure a bearing on a map, using a 360-degree protractor. He finds the direct bearing from Holyhead to Dublin.

07.00—07.25

Arriving in a very sunny Dublin, Ben poses the question: how to find the bearing for his return journey?

07.25—09.25

In ‘Tick or Trash’, Ben and Katie are asked to measure a bearing. The discussion of Katie’s error focuses on the need to measure bearings clockwise.

09.25—13.05

Katie visits air traffic control at Leeds/Bradford Airport. She explains that all flights use bearings to plot their course. She also gets to see how, using a flight simulator. She flies from Manchester to Leeds/Bradford on a course involving a change of direction, and we see her journey drawn to scale on a map. Katie makes a wobbly landing, but doesn’t crash, on Runway 32.

13.05—13.29

Ben describes the journey and we see the flight path again. We are asked what bearings Katie would need to follow to retrace her path on a return flight.

13.29—end

The presenters emerge from the cinema, full of popcorn, and can’t agree on the direction to take home — although Katie is sure that she knows best!