SEVENTEEN Platinum Jubilee Medals were awarded to Lyme Regis RNLI crew members - who can be seen on television tonight (Thursday).

The prestigious medals were presented to the crew by the Mayor of Lyme Regis Cllr Michaela Ellis at the crew's summer party for family and friends at the headquarters of Lyme Regis Powerboat Club.

Throughout the RNLI 4,500 volunteers and frontline staff are receiving the Platinum Jubilee Medal in recognition of the 65,886 lives saved by the charity during the Queen’s 70 years and her time as patron of the RNLI.

Tim Edwards, the lifeboat's senior helm said: "We are all delighted to receive the Queen's Platinum anniversary medal, it is a great honour and celebrates the efforts of thousands of volunteers who give up their time to save lives at sea.

“Needless to say, we had a fine celebration with families and friends at our annual summer party."

The presentation came days before the town’s lifeboat volunteers are due to feature in the BBC2 series, Saving Lives Sea, which can be seen tonight (Thursday) at 8pm.

The episode will follow members of the team, including Mr Edwards, as they search for some missing fishermen after their boat capsized in the River Axe in November last year. There will be a video of the rescue shown as well as interviews with the fishermen.

This is the third time that the Lyme Regis crew have appeared in this documentary series. Most of the sea-going crew members having other jobs - they include builders, decorators, electricians, a professional artist, a musician, and there are also a number of retired volunteers who are all prepared to drop everything they are doing when their pagers go off to alert them to an emergency at sea.

The BBC2 documentary series sees the men and women of the RNLI undertake rescue operations in coastal waters.