MovieChat Forums > Real People (1979) Discussion > episode featuring the country called Sea...

episode featuring the country called Sea Land

posted 16 years ago by G_man2
2 replies | jump to latest

Sea Land DOES exist (but not to be confused with Maersk Sealand, a shipping company).

the Principality of Sea Land actually is an abandoned oil platform in the North Sea. it is now claimed by the UK, because the platform is within 12 miles of Britain (originally, the UK's territory extended only 3 miles from shore, thereby allowing Sea Land to declare itself a sovereign state).

"Real People" did a story on this 'country'. i thought it was fascinating. to the best of my knowledge, Sea Land is not recognized by any country, except maybe THe Netherlands.

http://www.sealandgov.org/

generally, i didnt like the show-- i thought the good stories were few and far in between. i DO remember one week Sarah Purcell signing off at the end of the show saying "Thanks to you, we were the #1 show last week!".

[–] kenobi575 13 years ago

Finally! Someone else who remembers that episode; by any chance, do you remember a scene where they showed a cash register on Sealand and the narrator said that they print their own stamps and money?

I know they make coins and stamps but no one seems to remember paper money. The folks at Sealand won't reply to questions.

I collect paper money and would love to find some Sealand scrip.

P.S. Sealand was not an oil platform - it was a military outpost during WWII, the British government really doesn't have any claim to it - a British court sided with Sealand. The Brits tore down all remaining forts after Sealand went independent.

I too thought it was an oil platform and off the coast of Northern California; this thinking had me stumped for over 20 years until research yielded answers.

The best thing would be to find that episode but, so far, no go.

[–] BugisStreetAnnie (1297) 7 years ago

generally, i didnt like the show-- i thought the good stories were few and far in between

I agree. Many of the shows have been uploaded on YouTube and so many are clunkers. I always loved this show back in the day, but now watching some of them they are totally boring.