Seen from today’s perspective, the programme also reflects wider patterns that now fall under the term globalisation. It does so without using the language of modern international relations, yet the underlying dynamics are familiar.

The ships depicted in the series carried goods across long distances, but they also connected societies. Alongside cargo moved language, ideas, working practices and cultural habits. Trade routes required navigation, but they also depended on communication and trust between people from different backgrounds.

In this sense, commerce operated as a form of informal international engagement. Merchants and shipowners were often required to develop an understanding of foreign markets and local customs. Contracts alone were insufficient without reputation and reliability.

Many of these conditions remain relevant to international relations today.

Cultural diplomacy operates in a similar space, although through different means. Where nineteenth century trade linked societies through commerce, cultural exchange connects them through education, arts, media and public institutions. These activities do not replace formal diplomacy, but they contribute to the environment in which it takes place.

The underlying principle is continuity rather than novelty. International cooperation has always depended on relationships between societies as well as agreements between states.

When The Onedin Line was first broadcast by the BBC, it reached audiences well beyond Britain. It became part of a shared television culture in several European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and parts of Scandinavia. In some cases, it also reached audiences in Eastern Europe, where imported television drama often provided a rare window into other historical and social settings.

This created a form of shared cultural reference. Viewers across different countries followed the same characters and storylines, even if their political systems and national contexts differed. These shared references formed part of a broader European cultural memory that developed alongside political and economic integration.

Such experiences illustrate how culture can create connections that are not dependent on formal political agreements. They also show how narratives circulate across borders and become part of common reference points between societies.

Berlin offers a relevant context for this reflection. The city has long functioned as a meeting point for different cultural and political traditions. Its institutions, universities and cultural organisations continue to bring together participants from a wide range of countries. In this setting, cultural diplomacy is not an abstract concept but part of everyday practice.

The experience of exchange, whether through exhibitions, academic cooperation or public debate, contributes to forms of trust that develop gradually rather than through formal negotiation alone.

The historical setting of The Onedin Line also highlights that international connectivity did not begin with modern technology. Maritime trade created global networks long before digital communication systems existed. These networks linked producers, traders and consumers across continents, establishing patterns of exchange that shaped economic and political development.

Although the technologies have changed, several underlying conditions remain consistent. International engagement still depends on reliability, reputation and mutual understanding. Differences in language, law and political systems continue to require practical forms of coordination.

In contemporary diplomacy, these elements extend beyond governments to include cities, cultural institutions, universities and non-state actors. The structure of international relations is therefore broader than formal state interaction alone.

The programme’s narrative reflects this wider reality in an indirect way. Each voyage required negotiation, adaptation and an awareness of different contexts. Success depended on more than technical skill. It also required judgement about people and situations.

In that respect, the storylines presented in The Onedin Line align with a longer history of international exchange in which commerce, culture and communication are closely linked.

The series also demonstrates how cultural products can acquire meaning beyond their original context. While it was produced as historical drama, it later became part of a shared viewing experience across several countries. This type of transnational reception is one example of how cultural memory is formed outside formal political structures.

Such shared experiences do not remove differences between societies. However, they can provide points of reference that make communication between them easier.

Before globalisation had a name, it already existed in practice through trade routes, migration and cultural exchange. The mechanisms have changed over time, but the underlying principle of interconnectedness remains.

The Onedin Line offers one way of viewing this continuity. It presents a world in which economic activity, social relations and international contact were already closely connected. It also suggests that international understanding has always depended on more than formal diplomacy alone.

In that sense, the programme can be read as an illustration of how global connections developed long before they were described in contemporary terms. It shows that international relations have always involved people, not only institutions, and that cultural understanding has always played a role in sustaining them.

*Final Remark - Half a century after its first broadcast, The Onedin Line can be viewed in two ways. It remains a compelling portrayal of the emergence of an interconnected world, while also reflecting the historical assumptions of the early 1970s. Questions that today occupy historians and practitioners of cultural diplomacy, including colonial legacies, inequality and representation, were largely absent from mainstream television at the time. Revisiting the series today is therefore not only an exercise in nostalgia but also an opportunity to consider how our understanding of global history has evolved.

• Independent