SMOKING ROOM

In June of this year a handful of us Frock Around The Clock folks, a few of our vintage-loving friends, and the lovely people from Living Vintage were asked to be part of a Twenty Twenty Television production 'We Built Titanic', which would be a television series following four modern day engineers attempting to rebuild sections of the Titanic, using only the tools and techniques of the early twentieth century.

So on 10th June we were invited to a special party at the Ulster Museum to celebrate the unveiling of a reconstruction of part of the Titanic's Smoking Room and a third class passenger cabin, where the evening would be filmed and eventually transmitted as part of the television series to be aired in Autumn 2010 by Channel Four and National Geographic.

Dressed in Edwardian attire, some of us attended the party as first class passengers and others as steerage passengers and we all looked a treat as we arrived at Botanic Gardens.

We were greeted by some of the television presenters dressed as Titanic stewards, who served us with the most lethal Edwardian cocktails with names like The Rivet Gun, and another first class gentleman who played card tricks with us in the smoking room. After we had all been plied with copious amounts of the dangerous Edwardian cocktails, we were served tea from china cups that were an exact reproduction of those that had been made for the Titanic's maiden voyage.

It was fascinating to hear how the presenters had set out on their mission to rebuild parts of the Titanic using only the tools and techniques that were used for its original construction, and to learn about how life would have been on the magnificent ship for both the first and steerage class passengers.

The Twenty Twenty team were also responsible for the construction of the 30ft replica section of the ship's hull which was recently unveiled alongside the Titanic Dock and Pump House at the Northern Ireland Science Park, Queen's Island. 

Channel 4 will be transmitting We Built Titanic under the new title Titanic: the Mission from Monday 27th September at 9pm with the following schedule:

Episode 1 - The Hull (Belfast) - Monday 27th September @ 9.00pm
Episode 2 - The Anchor (Sheffield and Dudley) - Monday 4th October @ 9.00pm
Episode 3 - Electricity (Shugborough Hall) - Monday 11th October @ 9.00pm
Episode 4 - Interiors& the Smoking Room (Brighton and Belfast) - Monday 18th October @ 9.00pm
Episode 5 - Safety and The Engineers Memorial (Southampton)- Monday 25th October @ 9.00pm

We are proud to have played a part in bringing the programme to the screen and look forward to following the Twenty Twenty team on their mission throughout the series while learning more about the skills and innovations that Belfast was once synonymous with.

You can find updates and more information about the series on the Channel Four Website and on the Facebook page for the Titanic Mission.