Transport ship in drama crossing area by Channel island (5,3)
I believe the answer is:
noahs ark
'transport ship' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'drama crossing area by channel island' is the wordplay.
'drama' becomes 'noh' (Noh or No is a Japanese masked drama).
'crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'channel island' becomes 'sark' (I've seen this before).
'noh' enclosing 'a' is 'noah'.
'noah'+'sark'='NOAHS ARK'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for noahs ark that I've seen before include "Old ship" , "Rescue vessel" , "Biblical transport" , "It landed on Ararat" , "Biblical vessel" .)