Martin Clunes seeks to fulfil a burning ambition to swim with one of the sea’s most enormous and enigmatic creatures in ITV1’s new documentary Man to Manta which UK viewers can watch on ITV1 at 9pm on Thursday 6th January.

“There’s just one creature in the ocean which I’ve always truly wanted to see. The mysterious, magical and elusive manta ray,” Martin explains. “I’ve been told that hundreds of manta rays gather to feed in a remote corner of the Indian Ocean, and I was desperate to be there to experience it.”

Man to Manta takes the viewer on a journey around the world from Ecuador to Sri Lanka, Atlanta to the Maldives as Martin learns about these enigmatic ocean dwellers and finally realises his dream to swim with one in the wild.

Maldives underwater footage was shot by Scubazoo underwater cameraman Roger Munns.