Channel Patrol - Season 1

The RNLI team from Newhaven, one of the busiest stations on the channel, rush to answer a mayday call from a teenager on a stranded yacht. We follow trawler skipper Mike Young as he struggles with strict fishing regulations and mechanical breakdowns while trying to earn a living from the channel's waters. Commercial fishing is statistically one of the most dangerous jobs in the UK, with fishermen 16 times more likely to be killed than those working in construction. And another job that's not without its dangers - we're with the Royal Navy's underwater bomb squad, the Fleet Diving Squadron, who are called out to blow up a hazard in the Solent.

The RNLI team from Newhaven rush to the aid of a casualty having a suspected heart attack on board a charter fishing boat out at sea. Every minute is critical to reach him within the 'golden hour'. The team must then quickly assess whether he needs emergency helicopter evacuation.

We follow the crew and pilots on a mammoth cargo freighter as it makes its way through the channel's hazards to Southampton in thick fog. Ninety-five per cent of everything we buy comes to us via sea and the cargo ships that bring us everything from TVs to fresh fruit and veg are getting ever larger. At 368 metres long, the APL Merlion is 62 metres bigger than London's tallest building, the Shard. Getting this mammoth beast safely into port in poor visibility is no mean feat.

The RNLI fight to save an historic structure. The Newhaven RNLI crew was one of many agencies called out when Eastbourne pier caught fire on 30 July 2014. Using footage captured on their helmet camera as well as live news from the day, we follow the key role they played in helping to save the historic pier from total destruction.

We follow the crew of navy destroyer the HMS Duncan as they're put to the test to prove they're ready for battle. The channel plays an important role for the Royal Navy's fleet of 90 ships and submarines by offering them a base, but it's also the training ground where ships and crews can be prepared for combat. The HMS Duncan is one of the most sophisticated ships in the navy's fleet, able to detect a tennis ball moving at mach 3 from several hundred miles away. But can her crew make use of all this hi-tech kit when they come under fire from hawk jets in a simulated battle?

In this episode, lighthouse engineers battle a hurricane. The Corporation of Trinity House is the organisation responsible for managing and maintaining over 500 lighthouses and buoys that mark out the shipping lanes and warn ships away from the channel's hazards. The team on Trinity House's flagship, the Galatea, are called out to a damaged light vessel which is marking a hazardous sandbank in the Dover Straits. But their mission to tow it into harbour for repair becomes increasingly perilous when Hurricane Bertha closes in on the channel.

A rookie sailor takes part in the Tall Ships Regatta - a stunning spectacle where 46 traditionally-rigged sailing vessels race 200 miles from Falmouth to the Isle of Wight. For newcomer Joseph it's a chance to escape from his office job and learn the ropes on board the 100-year-old Kapitan Borchardt.

Over the centuries the 29,000 square miles of the English Channel have provided an abundance of fish such as cod, haddock and skate. But in recent decades their numbers have plummeted - in part due to industrial-scale fishing methods. A band of eco-fishermen from Weymouth are hoping to help preserve the channel's fish stocks by using the more traditional fishing method of a rod and line to catch sea bass. But it's a volatile and unpredictable way to earn a living, and they can come home with nothing.

Since the reign of Henry VIII, the Corporation of Trinity House has provided lighthouses and buoys in the UK's waters and along its coast to warn ships of potential hazards and prevent them running aground. But maintaining them can be a hazardous task in itself - as the crew of their flagship, the Galatea, discovers when they try to tow in a damaged light vessel at the tail end of Hurricane Bertha.

Swimming the English Channel from England to France is one of the toughest mental and physical challenges there is - more people have climbed Everest than have succeeded in swimming across it. But a team of four ex-military veterans are hoping to conquer its waters and create a new world record in the process. Each of them has lost a leg. If they succeed, they will be the first all-amputee team to complete the challenge.