In the same style, North Sea employed minimal narration and relies on action, dialogue and characterisation to tell its story.
The John Gillman, a deep-sea castle-class trawler is damaged during a storm in the North Sea and seeks help from the Wick coastguard.
Nevertheless, the 'cast' did use some scripted dialogue devised by Watt, who, like many from the Documentary Film Movement, came from a middle-class background.
It provided a second role for the real-life Bill Blewitt, the Cornish postman who had proved a star turn in the first film.
North Sea proved popular[2] and was to lead to a number of feature-length dramatised documentaries during the 1940s, including Target for Tonight, Coastal Command, Fires Were Started, and Western Approaches.