Cameras ride with Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteers as they answer 999 calls along 19,000 miles of British and Irish coastline. Each 58-minute episode stitches together three or four shouts: a windsurfer swept towards cliffs in Cornwall, a heart-attack sailor off Cork, children cut off by tides in Wales. The crews are bricklayers, teachers, fishermen; the Atlantic is their other boss.
Brendan Coyle narrated the 2016 launch run; Steven Mackintosh took over from series two, his calm baritone steering viewers through night vision footage, helmet GoPros and coastguard radio traffic. Blast! Films, the production company, keeps a small embedded unit at each station for up to a year, so when the pager goes off the crew are already miked and the lens cap is off.
Ten series have aired since the 13 July 2016 debut, clocking 96 episodes and counting. Locations leap from Thurso in the north to Castletownbere in the west, with recent titles such as “Knife Edge” and “Hidden Dangers” signalling the everyday peril behind routine hobbies. Ratings hold steady above two million, rare for BBC Two, and the show doubles as a discreet fundraising vehicle for the charity that receives no government funding for its rescue service.
Production Details
BBC One / 10 Seasons / 96 Episodes / 2016 - Present
Showrunner(s): Sarah Spencer
Producer(s): David Mackay, Sunny Kang
Main Cast
Steven Mackintosh as Self - Narrator
Brendan Coyle as Self - Narrator
Dermot O'Leary as Self
