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Saving Lives at Sea

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Documentary following the men and women of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI).

Ordinary people, extraordinary bravery. From trawlers in peril to struggling swimmers, meet the army of RNLI volunteers working to save those in danger - whatever the weather.

Series 5

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England

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

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Steven Mackintosh

Sarah Spencer

Alex Raw

Sue Innes

Phil Broadhurst

Luke Proctor

Blast! Films Ltd

Saving Lives at Sea: Series 5: Episode 4

Episode 4

BBC Two - Saving Lives at Sea, Series 5, Episode 4

Lifeboats race to save a sinking schooner, and a crew face an eerie search in darkness.

The volunteers of the RNLI race to save a sinking schooner and a walker with a broken leg, while cries for help in the early hours of the morning lead to an eerie night-time search.

The seas and lakes of the UK and Ireland can catch out even the most experienced seafarers and, more often than not, it is the RNLI volunteers who pick up the pieces. 

In Essex, the crew at Walton and Frinton get an unusual mayday call to a ship called HMS Pickle. Arriving on scene, they discover it is not the modern naval vessel they were expecting but a replica of a ship that once served in Nelson’s fleet, and though the original survived the battle of Trafalgar, this one is shipping water and sinking fast.  

On the east coast of Scotland, the crew at Anstruther face a tricky rescue trying to extract a walker with a badly broken leg from a remote coastal path. And in the Shannon basin in Ireland, the crew at one of the RNLI’s few inland stations at Lough Derg are woken in the early hours of the morning by their pagers - cries for help have been heard coming from the 40-mile-long lake. After launching into inky darkness and thick fog, the crew make an eerie discovery.

Saving Lives at Sea: Series 5

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