A dramatic rescue carried out by Whitstable RNLI volunteers is set to hit TV screens tonight as part of the BBC series Saving Lives at Sea.

Filming for the show has taken place over the past year, with RNLI lifeboat crews and lifeguards across the country carrying special cameras and welcoming film-makers into their day-to-day lives.

This forthcoming episode, which airs tonight, follows a Whitstable lifeboat crew as they rescue two anglers after their 14ft dinghy was capsized by a wave off Reculver.

The lifeboat was launched just before 9am on Wednesday, June 20, after the coastguard received a report from a person onshore who had spotted the two men in distress.

A yacht passing about a mile away also spotted them and, unable to help because of an obstructing sand bank, alerted the coastguard with a Mayday signal.

The men, one aged 74 and the other in his 60s, are thought to have been in the water clinging to their upturned craft for about two and a half hours before RNLI rescuers reached them and plucked them from the sea.

After reports were received, Whitstable lifeboat found the stricken anglers almost immediately.

Helmsman Dave Parry said: “They were in the water holding onto their upturned craft and we brought them onboard the lifeboat.

“They were both extremely cold and we wrapped in thermal blankets and we took them to Neptune slipway at Herne Bay where the ambulance service and coastguard were waiting.”

The rescue was a joint operation with Margate’s all-weather lifeboat which recovered the men’s boat.

Whitstable Lifeboat operations manager Mike Judge said: “These two were very lucky to survive the incident and it shows the value of people reporting what they see to the emergency services.

“It was very fortunate that we arrived when we did and given their condition the outcome may have been very different.

“It was fortunate that both the 'first' informant on shore and the yacht spotted and confirmed their position”.

The incident will feature alongside rescue stories from other lifeboat stations across the country in the 10-part documentary series, which gives a unique insight into the work of volunteers.

In the last year alone, they have helped more than 8,000 people nationally.

Saving Lives at Sea is being shown on BBC Two at 8pm on Tuesdays.