Saving Lives at Sea Catch up, Series 5: Episode 7 on BBC 2

Saving Lives at Sea

Series 5: 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 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

Most recent episodes of Saving Lives at Sea

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 3. Every Second Counts

Over 5,000 lifeboat volunteers across the UK and Ireland are ready to answer the call to save lives at sea. From the moment their pagers sound, they know that every second count ...

18-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 6. Trust

Every one of the RNLI’s crew members brings their own unique skills to the station at which they volunteer. But they’re all united by one key element: trust.\n\nIn H ...

16-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 5. Caught Out

Although the crews of the RNLI know the perils around their coasts, many seaside visitors already need rescuing by the time they become apparent.\n\nIn Queensferry, an American ...

13-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 2. 999

Of the 9,000 shouts the lifeboat crews respond to each year, the vast majority start - as most emergencies do - with a 999 call.\n\nIn Dungeness, the crew are called out to repo ...

11-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 4. First Time For Everything

For every RNLI crew member, the first shout is just the beginning of many firsts.\n\nOn the south western tip of Ireland, Castletownbere crew member Donagh faces a baptism of fi ...

06-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 9: 1. Saving Lives At Sea In World War Ii

In this special episode commemorating the 2024 bicentenary of the RNLI, Dermot O’Leary uncovers the untold story of the institution’s heroic efforts in the Second Wo ...

04-04-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 6 (shortened Versions): Episode 4

Of the calls the RNLI respond to every year, some are a race against the tide while others are against the weather. But all of them are a race against time. The crew at Tower, o ...

29-01-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

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 ...

19-01-2024

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

Series 8: 10. Expect The Unexpected

In 2022, the lifeboats around the UK and Ireland launched over 9,300 times. On each and every shout, the crews must expect the unexpected.\n\nOn the Isle of Wight, the Bembridge ...

15-12-2023

BBC 2

All episodes

Saving Lives At Sea

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 ...

13-12-2023

BBC 2

All episodes