Based on a short story by Nicholas Monsarrat (author of The Cruel Sea) and directed by Basil Dearden (The Blue Lamp, The League Of Gentleman) The Ship That Died of Shame takes place during the bleak aftermath of the Second World War. A crew of navy veterans, played by screen legend Richard Attenborough, George Baker (The Dam Busters) and Bill Owen (Last Of The Summer Wine), are forced into smuggling black market goods across the English Channel to make ends meet. But it isn't long before wine and cigarettes are replaced by the more lucrative cargo of automatic weapons and counterfeit money. A crisis of conscience lies upon the horizon when one of the crew refuses to turn a blind eye after discovering that the mysterious stranger they've been asked to smuggle into England hides a dark and harrowing secret.