TV appearance for Holyhead RNLI after celebrity joins training exercise

The volunteer RNLI crew at Holyhead will feature on national television this weekend, after being filmed on exercise with Antarctic adventurer Ben Fogle. The TV presenter enjoyed a visit to Anglesey this summer filming scenes for the BBC1 programme Country Tracks.

This Sunday (1 November), viewers will see the TV star board the Holyhead all-weather RNLI lifeboat and join the volunteer crew on a training exercise. He watched attentively as the crew demonstrated using search patterns to locate a missing person.

Brian Thomson, RNLI Coxswain at Holyhead says:

‘Ben was a real gent and was genuinely interested and impressed by the work of the RNLI. He interviewed myself and some of the volunteer crew and we very much look forward to seeing the programme at the weekend.

‘As a charity it is important that we are kept in the public eye and that people realise we rely entirely on voluntary contributions and legacies for income. It was an privilege to take part in a programme such as this which will go out to audiences across Britain – putting not only the RNLI but Holyhead on the map too.’

The presenter begins his journey with the RNLI and then back on dry land struggles with the pronounciation of the town with the longest name in Britain - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. At Llangollen he speaks to a bailiff who stakes out the river to protect the salmon from poachers. Ben finishes his journey trying his hand at gorge walking.

Photograph: Ben Fogle with Holyhead RNLI Coxswain Brian Thomson by RNLI/Ray Steadman