Torrey Canyon oil spill: When golden beaches turned black

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Torrey Canyon disaster, where millions of gallons of crude oil coated Cornwall's beaches after a huge tanker ran aground.

Hardly any coastal community escaped the ravages of the pollution and many people still vividly remember the awful choking stench of the oil.

It's described as the UK's worst environmental disaster, killing thousands of birds and marine life.

Watch the full story below, with some remarkable colour footage from Porthleven film maker, Vic Strike:

Vic Strike described the aftermath as "like a thick mass of melted chocolate."

He added, "it was terrible. Oil everywhere and nobody really knew what to do with it.''

Harold Wilson's Labour Government, in 1967, was under enormous pressure to clean the beaches before the Easter holidays. But the anti pollution measures they used only made it worse.

Vic filmed the detergent being sprayed on the water. "They did a lot more damage with the detergent than if they had allowed it to be cleaned up by natural resources,'' he said.

Controversially, to dispose of the tanker, the wreck was bombed and set alight. It now sits at the bottom of the channel, ironically a haven for marine life.

The tragedy has since become an important milestone for safety regulations that still apply today, but none of the Cornish residents will ever forget the sludge of 1967 - which took more than a decade to properly clean.