TV Star Skipped Submarine Trip That Was Later Doomed

(DailyDig.com) – Filmmaker, actor, and presenter Ross Kemp almost created a TV program in which he sank to the site of the Titanic in an OceanGate submersible.

It was expected that Kemp, 58, who is best known for his role as the tough guy Grant Mitchell on the long-running BBC1 serial “East Enders,” would host the show.

Professor Jonathan Shalit, head of InterTalent and Kemp’s agent, revealed that the seasoned filmmakers who made the documentary checked out the OceanGate submersible on their own. As soon as it became clear that no one could safely board the ship, they abandoned plans to use it.

After Kemp had become too busy with his many TV programs to participate, Shalit stated they had discovered further subsea dives that had been safe and effective. He expressed relief at not having the epitaph of the “agent who killed Ross Kemp” added to his biography.

On June 22, experts confirmed that all five personnel on board the company’s mini-sub Titan were killed immediately on June 18 during the sub’s descent to the site of the Titanic disaster.

Since 2022 would commemorate the 110th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic, Kemp had the notion of creating a program commemorating the event.

Both “Shipwreck Treasure Hunter” and “Deep Sea Treasure Hunter,” two Sky History shows, featured Kemp diving without the use of submersibles. He had to go through extensive training and testing to acquire his deep-sea diving certificate, which allowed him to dive to depths of up to 40 meters.

During the initial discussions with OceanGate, they were asked about the training Kemp would need to take in order to take the submarine to the Titanic. When asked how much training he needed, they replied that he needed no training at all.

As Kemp himself indicated when his “Treasure Hunter” series first aired, he filmed the shipwreck documentaries as part of his insatiable curiosity about the past and the ocean. His dives on sunken vessels, he claimed, have always yielded narratives that reverberate through time.