Of the almost 9,000 emergencies the RNLI’s lifeboats launch to every year, just seven per cent are to commercial vessels. The vast majority of their shouts are to those using the water for pleasure, to people who never intended to get in the water in the first place and shore-based rescues from cliffs and beaches. \n\nOff the coast of Northumberland, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne is connected to the mainland by a tidal causeway, exposed at low water but submerged at high tide. When the car of a young family is caught on the causeway by a rising sea, ten miles away the crew from Seahouses lifeboat station are paged and must race the tide to rescue them before the car is submerged or swept away. \n\nIn Ireland, the crew of one of the RNLI’s few inland stations, Lough Derg, faces a rough ride when the pagers sound a few days after Christmas. Launching onto a cold, windswept and choppy lake, they must find two capsized kayakers who are close to drowning. \n\nOn Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, the crew at Lyme Regis must scale a crumbling, treacherous cliff face in the pitch dark to rescue a fossil hunter cut off by a rising tide.
Source: BBC 2
Series 5 (shortened Versions): Episode 9
Last year, the lifeboat crews and lifeguards around the UK and Ireland raced to the aid of over 9,400 people, but all the volunteers know that, when the pager goes off, not ever ...
09-02-2025
BBC 2
Series 8: 4. Facing The Fear
Every time any of the 400 lifeboats across the UK and Ireland are called out on a shout, the crews on board must manage a whole range of emotions - and face their fears.\n\nIn n ...
17-12-2024
BBC 2
Series 8: 6. Family
For all crews, the support network extends far beyond the staff and volunteers themselves: they need their family behind them at all times.\n\nIn Torbay, Devon, a yacht has sent ...
11-12-2024
BBC 2
Series 5 (shortened Versions): Episode 6
Every day around the UK and Ireland, an unpaid army of men and women, from artists to undertakers and from priests to poets, are ready to put their lives on the line to save tho ...
20-11-2024
BBC 2
Series 5 (shortened Versions): Episode 8
During one of the worst storms in living memory, on the south coast of England the crew of Hastings lifeboat receive an emergency call. A surfer, hoping to make the most of the ...
14-11-2024
BBC 2
Series 5 (shortened Versions): Episode 7
Of the almost 9,000 emergencies the RNLI’s lifeboats launch to every year, just seven per cent are to commercial vessels. The vast majority of their shouts are to those us ...
30-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 6 (shortened Versions): 1. Saving Lives At Sea
Each year the volunteer crews of the RNLI respond to around 9,000 call outs, from paddleboarders swept out to sea to sinking fishing boats, from families caught in rip currents ...
28-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 5: Episode 10
When the pagers sound, sending lifeboats into the waters of the UK and Ireland, the crews on board rely on both their training and experience to bring casualties home safely to ...
15-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 5: Episode 5
Week in, week out, across the UK and Ireland volunteers give up their weekends and evenings to learn life-saving techniques ready for when they need to put their skills into use ...
29-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 7: 5. Learning On The Job
The vast majority of the RNLI’s volunteer crew members don’t come from a professional maritime background - so every day is a school day.\n\nIn Eastbourne, new recru ...
16-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 5: Episode 10
When the pagers sound, sending lifeboats into the waters of the UK and Ireland, the crews on board rely on both their training and experience to bring casualties home safely to ...
15-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 7: 6. Ready For Anything
In Eastbourne, a routine day at the station changes in an instant when a boat catches fire just outside the harbour. In Trevone, north Cornwall, 18-year-old lifeguard Alfie race ...
11-10-2022
BBC 2
Series 4 Cutdowns: Episode 8
Calshot lifeboat station on the south coast of England gets a call out to one of the biggest jobs its crews have ever faced - an 180-metre-long, 50,000-tonne cargo ship has hit ...
16-01-2021
BBC 2
Series 5 (shortened Versions): Episode 6
Every day around the UK and Ireland, an unpaid army of men and women, from artists to undertakers and from priests to poets, are ready to put their lives on the line to save tho ...
20-11-2024
BBC 2
Series 3: Episode 9
Every day in the seas around the UK and Ireland, an army of unpaid volunteers put their lives on the line to save those of others. Saving Lives at Sea tells the story of the ord ...
28-06-2022
BBC 2
Series 6: Episode 10
Last year, the lifeboats around the UK and Ireland came to the aid of over 8,300 people. But no matter what they face when they head out on a shout, all crew members are instill ...
18-03-2023
BBC 2
Series 6 (shortened Versions): 1. Saving Lives At Sea
Each year the volunteer crews of the RNLI respond to around 9,000 call outs, from paddleboarders swept out to sea to sinking fishing boats, from families caught in rip currents ...
28-10-2024
BBC 2
Series 6: Episode 3
Every lifeboat volunteer undergoes hundreds of hours of training to get them up to the level of expertise needed to join a crew. But even with the best instruction available, a ...
04-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 5: Episode 8
During one of the worst storms in living memory, on the south coast of England the crew of Hastings lifeboat receive an emergency call. A surfer, hoping to make the most of the ...
01-05-2022
BBC 2