Boatloads of new heroes
I
GET seasick just watching SAVING LIVES AT SEA (BBC2, 8pm), so I take my (swim) cap off to the heroic volunteers who brave the nausea-inducing pitch and swell of the waters to rescue those who are way out of their depth.
Even in its ninth series the show has lost none of the nerveshredding tension, and tonight there are more rescues in some of Britain’s most popular tourist spots, a salutary reminder to be aware of the sea’s might even when we’re paddling on holiday.
The cameras follow more RNLI crews dotted about our prettiest coastal spots.At Port Isaac – on the coast of Cornwall and, incidentally, the village where Doc Martin was filmed – speed to the rescue of a woman with a spinal injury who’s in a precarious position on a rockface. It’s a race against time because the light is fading fast.
In picturesque Pembrokeshire in Wales, the Little and Broad Haven crew receive a mayday call about a capsized dinghy that’s catapulted three people into the water.
In Dorset, the RNLI Mudeford Lifeboat Station springs into action when a worrying situation unfolds – a search for one missing kayaker escalates to a full-scale emergency when it emerges that there are six more kayaks unaccounted for.
And the crews don’t just rescue people in trouble: in Eyemouth in Scotland, the crews race to help a swan in the harbour that’s become tangled in fishing line.
It’s a series that’s heartwarming and hair-raising, all at once.
Although a recent bill from the vet made me fear I might have to sell a kidney to pay for my cat’s dental treatment, I still have love in my heart for those kind and clever professionals who tend to our sick pets and livestock. Especially THE YORKSHIRE VET (C5, 8pm), the avuncular PeterWright and his fellow Dr Dolittle, the compassionate Julian Norton.
The pair make delightful TV personalities, bringing animals back from the brink time and again and plunging up to their elbows in cows’ backsides without a second’s thought.
Tonight,Wright tends to a newborn alpaca called Elvis whose life is in danger because he can’t suckle properly on his mother. Norton meets a very special therapy sheep (you heard right) with an ear problem, and a young French bulldog requires complex spinal surgery when she suddenly becomes paralysed.
There’s a scene at a blood bank for pets (who knew?) where owners can volunteer Fido’s blood to help other pets in need.
And while Yorkshire’s vets and farmers are usually a tightknit clan, tonight they go to battle in a cricket match.
It’s wholesome stuff that fills our screens with lush shots of rolling dales and patchwork fields, nicely filling a gap in our TV lives until All Creatures Great And Small returns this autumn.