Of the 9,000 shouts the lifeboat crews respond to each year, the vast majority start - as most emergencies do - with a 999 call.

In Dungeness, the crew are called out to reports of a small boat in the middle of the shipping lanes. En route back to the station, they discover that the casualty is the subject of a major manhunt. Along the Kent coast, the Walmer crew race to the rescue of two divers who have become separated from their support vessel.

In south Wales, the Port Talbot is launched, following reports of a man who’s been seen entering the water near the steelworks. And in Kinghorn, on the east coast of Scotland, the crew are given a rude awakening when they receive a call at two in the morning about an injured sailor near the deserted Inchkeith Island. Show less