Mary Rose to feature in Ross Kemp documentary series airing next week on Sky History

The former Eastenders star and his expert team returned to the ocean for a second instalment of their Sky History Treasure Hunter series to venture into the waters of the British Isles and beyond in their search for hidden gems of Britain’s past.

In the new four-part series, Ross Kemp: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter, they go deeper than before to explore the history of Britain, its former trading routes and maritime conflicts by delving into shipwrecks including one of the world’s most famed vessels – Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose.

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Kemp and marine archaeologist Mallory Haas were given the opportunity to dive onto the wreckage of Henry VIII’s prized warship, the Mary Rose, which sunk in 1545 at the Battle of the Solent. After lying undiscovered for hundreds of years entombed within the seabed, the shipwreck was finally located by divers in 1971.

It took more than 10 years of excavation by around 500 divers across some 28,000 dives before the remains of the hull could be raised and the historic moment was watched by a TV audience of 60 million in 1982 as the remains finally made it to the surface after 437 years.

Assisted by historians and maritime experts, Kemp and his team unearth new treasures and explore the impact the ship’s sinking had on the war and Henry himself during the series.

‘To dive on the Mary Rose was an absolute honour. We were the first people in 25 years, as far as I know, to be allowed to do that so that’s an absolute privilege and I’ll cherish that for the rest of my time diving.’

The actor-turned-presenter has also lent his voice to a new immersive 4D cinema experience at The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which allows visitors to relive the story of the famous shipwreck and the impressive efforts made to raise it 40 years ago.

Dive The Mary Rose 4D mixes film with sounds and smells to provide an engaging experience to give visitors a feel for being part of the dive team on the site of the wreck all those years ago.

Kemp, 58, said: ‘The great thing about the programme is if you’d asked me four years ago if I would get overjoyed at touching something or searching away at the bottom of Plymouth Sound and finding something that’s 400 years old or even 100 years old, I’d have laughed at you. Now I can tell you, it’s completely addictive. If you find something that hasn’t been seen or hasn’t been touched by another human being for hundreds of years, it’s like shaking hands with ghosts.

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‘I also believe that there are so many lessons to learn from our past and sometimes we ignore those at our peril. The actor received a good deal of training ahead of the first series and gained new qualifications to enable him to up to 35 metres for series 2.

The 58-year-old added: ‘Diving may appear very easy, but it isn’t, it’s extremely technical. If it goes wrong, it can go seriously wrong.’

Ross Kemp: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter series will launch on Sky History on April 10.