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Every day in the seas around the UK and Ireland, an army of unpaid volunteers put their lives on the line to save those of others. This programme tells the story of the ordinary men and women of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) who are ready to answer their pager’s call and race to the rescue of those in trouble, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the weather. Using footage shot on the crews’ own cameras, this series takes us into the heart of the action, capturing the unpredictable work of the RNLI in unique detail.

For many lifeboat crews, volunteering runs in the family and many stations have several members of the same family on their muster rolls, often stretching back generations, while for those who don’t have a family tradition of volunteering, the close-knit teams mean crewmates can often become like a second family.

In Minehead, veteran volunteer Phil launches their inshore lifeboat with his 26-year-old son Jake on board as they race to the rescue of two five-year-old girls who have been blown out into the Bristol Channel on an inflatable swan. In Scotland, George, a volunteer at Anstruther, also ends up on a shout with his dad, but not as crewmates, when his fisherman father needs rescuing from a boat drifting powerless towards a rocky shoreline. Meanwhile, on the north coast of Devon, the Ilfracombe crew face a race against time and tide to rescue a mother and her daughter stranded at the base of huge sea cliffs on a strip of beach fast disappearing under large breaking waves.