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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 to cargo ships on the rocks. In almost every single rescue every second counts. Saving Lives At Sea tells the story of the ordinary men and women who give up their time to do something extraordinary, giving an insight into the lives of the 6,000 lifeboat crew members who are prepared to put their lives on hold whenever the pager sounds, and whatever the weather.

Saving Lives At Sea brings us some of the RNLI’s most extraordinary recent rescues, filmed with the crews’ own cameras, and taking us straight into the heart of the drama. The series captures life at some of the 238 lifeboat stations across the UK and Ireland, the compelling stories behind the crew members involved, and the heartfelt testimony of the casualties they’ve saved.

The volunteer crews of the RNLI are often described as heroes, but it’s a word many of them find difficult to accept. In Trearddur Bay, in Anglesey, Sara and her daughter Katie know only too well the ups and downs of Daf - husband and Dad - being a long-serving crew member. When a force 10 gale rolls in from the Irish Sea, Daf and the crew battle through the waves to try and rescue a surfer. On the same stretch of Welsh coast the Llandudno and Rhyl lifeboats are involved in a desperate search for a fishing vessel that’s reported missing. In Appledore, in the mouth of the Bristol Channel, the crew are called out to rescue a woman who’s stuck in the mud, with the tide racing in. And on Fistral beach, on the north Cornish coast, the RNLI lifeguards are faced with a treacherous rip current that’s left a young woman in grave danger.