Titanic: The legacy

Charles Lightoller, second officer on the ship, wrote an autobiography in 1935 entitled Titanic and Other Ships, in which he described herding passengers on to lifeboats and huddling with other survivors until dawn broke.

“Bravery and self-sacrifice such as this was of common occurrence throughout the night,” he wrote.

A 1955 non-fiction book by Walter Lord called A Night To Remember contained interviews with many of the survivors of the disaster.

The Left-Handed Hummingbird (1993) by Kate Orman was a Doctor Who spin-off book in which the seventh doctor visits the Titanic as it is sinking while simultaneously trying to rectify faults in the space-time continuum and survive the attacks of the living god Huitzilin.

The slightly bizarre take on the disaster inspired a later episode of the better-known TV series, in which the interstellar cruise liner Titanic collides with the Doctor’s Tardis.

On the silver screen, the 1997 blockbuster Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet made the story of the disaster the most profitable film ever, grossing $1.8 billion (£1.13 bn) worldwide for its director James Cameron.

More recently, period drama Downton Abbey’s first episode opens on the day after the Titanic sinks, a metaphor for the troubled family’s fortunes as the heir apparent to Downton is thought to have been drowned.