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When the pagers sound, the only thing the volunteers know for sure is to expect the unexpected. The unpredictable seas around Britain’s coast mean they can be called out to everything and anything.

On the Wirral coast, the crew of Hoylake’s rescue hovercraft are called out to an unconventional casualty – a porpoise stranded by the outgoing tide.

Meanwhile, 200 miles to the north, there is another unusual victim of the British tides - a teenage wedding guest in suit and tie is plucked off a fast-disappearing rocky outcrop in the middle of the sea by the Kinghorn crew.

And in Cornwall, the Penlee lifeboat crew receive a dreaded call – a fishing boat, skippered by a fisherman the crew all know, is in flames miles out at sea.