Helicopter Heroes is a British daytime television series, following the lifesaving work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Yorkshire Air Ambulance is a dedicated helicopter emergency service for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It was introduced on 1 April 2000, and currently operates two aircraft. The helicopters provide a swift response time and access to isolated locations, such as beaches,...

. First screened on BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 in 2007, its first presenter was Top Gears Richard Hammond

Richard Hammond

Richard Mark Hammond is an English broadcaster, writer, and journalist most noted for co-hosting car programme Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, as well as presenting Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1.-Early life:...

. He agreed to front the show to thank the Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew which flew him to hospital in their helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 after his near-fatal jet engine powered car crash at Elvington Airfield near York.

Very high audience appreciation ratings (AIs) led the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 to re-commission the show and it has been in production ever since. Several series have been repeated in a primetime slot in slightly shortened form. Since Series 2 it has been fronted by ex-cop and Crimewatch

Crimewatch

Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One...

 presenter Rav Wilding

Rav Wilding

Rav Wilding is an English television presenter, former security guard at Harrods, former soldier and former police officer who, since June 2004, has been a presenter on Crimewatch.-Early life and education:...

.

Helicopter Heroes is now on air in Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia.

Unusually, it is entirely edited in a hangar at Leeds Bradford Airport

Leeds Bradford International Airport

Leeds Bradford International Airport is located at Yeadon, in the City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, northwest of Leeds city centre itself...

 and shot by a small team from BBC English regions using Sony EX3 HD cameras. Helicopter Heroes was among the first producer-shot observational documentary commissioned by the BBC HD Channel

BBC HD

BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...

. They have flown more than 1,000 missions in the Yorkshire Air Ambulance's two MD900 Explorer

MD Helicopters MD Explorer

|-See also:-References:* Jackson, Paul. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003–2004. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Information Group, 2003. ISBN 0 7106 2537 5.-External links:* *...

 helicopters.

Helicopter Heroes is well known for its dramatic air to air footage, its extensive use of aerial pictures of the Yorkshire countryside and bodycameras.

The programme captured dramatic footage of the aftermath of the Cumbria shootings

Cumbria shootings

The Cumbria shootings was a killing spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England....

 during Summer 2010. The team also filmed what is thought to be the first footage of a patient - air ambulance dispatcher Chris Solomons - actually suffering a heart attack, going into cardiac arrest and being revived with CPR and a defibrillator. This is now widely used around the world as a training aid for police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

, firefighter

Firefighter

Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...

s, air ambulance

Air ambulance

An air ambulance is an aircraft used for emergency medical assistance in situations where either a traditional ambulance cannot reach the scene easily or quickly enough, or the patient needs to be transported over a distance or terrain that makes air transportation the most practical transport....

 crews and paramedic

Paramedic

A paramedic is a healthcare professional that works in emergency medical situations. Paramedics provide advanced levels of care for medical emergencies and trauma. The majority of paramedics are based in the field in ambulances, emergency response vehicles, or in specialist mobile units such as...

s.

Celebrity contributors have included Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew, Duke of York

Prince Andrew, Duke of York KG GCVO , is the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

, TV presenter James May

James May

James Daniel May is an English television presenter, journalist and writer. He is best known for his role as co-presenter of the award-winning motoring programme Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond....

, TV chef Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay

Gordon James Ramsay, OBE is a Scottish chef, television personality and restaurateur. He has been awarded 13 Michelin stars....

 and cricketer Ian Botham

Ian Botham

Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...

. One celebrity who declined to appear was Jeremy Kyle

Jeremy Kyle

Jeremy Kyle is an English radio and television presenter, best known for his British daytime television chat show on ITV, The Jeremy Kyle Show. Kyle is also the host of an American talk show of the same name that premiered on 19 September 2011.-Radio career:From 1986 to 1995, Kyle worked as a...

 after the Yorkshire Air Ambulance was called to an accident involving his car on a stretch of the A1 in Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, as Helicopter Heroes is transmitted at the same time as his ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 show The Jeremy Kyle Show

The Jeremy Kyle Show

The Jeremy Kyle Show is an award-winning British daytime television tabloid talk show presented by Jeremy Kyle that has been broadcast on ITV since 4 July 2005. The show is recorded and produced by Granada Television at the Granada Studios on Quay Street in Manchester city centre and broadcast each...

.

See also

Sky Cops

Sky Cops

Sky Cops is a British reality TV show revealing the work of the air police in the UK. The BBC show follows police helicopters from the South Yorkshire Air Operations Unit and the Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit...

 - BBC TV series about British Police Air Support Units

Police aviation in the United Kingdom

Police aviation in United Kingdom provides the British police with an aerial support unit to assist them in pursuit, surveillance and tracking....

External links

• Helicopter Heroes at Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
  
  
• Helicopter Heroes at Yorkshire Air Ambulance
  Yorkshire Air Ambulance
  Yorkshire Air Ambulance is a dedicated helicopter emergency service for the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It was introduced on 1 April 2000, and currently operates two aircraft. The helicopters provide a swift response time and access to isolated locations, such as beaches,...