For almost 200 years, the UK and Ireland’s lifeboat stations have always been at the heart of their local communities.

In Larne, Northern Ireland, father and son duo Frank and Jack respond to reports of a kayaker who has failed to make it back to shore. On the south Devon coast, the Torbay crew race to the rescue of a dinghy that’s run aground on rocks in a perilous position.

In Cardigan, two capsized kayakers provide the crew with a stern test. And in Flint, north Wales, it was the people of the town that first raised the money for a lifeboat, in the late 1950s, before the RNLI set up a station there in 1966. Now, the current crew oversee the launch of the lifeboat to an unusual incident: the beaching of a fin whale. Show less