This year is the 100th since the 'unsinkable' Titanic did indeed sink in the icy waters of the northern Atlantic in what has now been accepted as one of the largest ever maritime disasters. On a somewhat equally chilly Thursday afternoon in south London I went to ITV to see episodes one and two of a new, Julian Fellowes-written, four-part drama about that fateful maiden voyage.
My grandfather Jock Hume was a violinist in the Titanic's band, playing until the ship went down. He was 21. At 2:20 am, the last lifeboats long since gone, he joined 1,500 men, women and children in the sea, using his violin case for extra buoyancy. Half an hour later they were all dead from hypothermia.