For more than 20 years, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance has worked with TV crews to share the stories of real rescues across the region.

In this episode we chat to Matt Richards, Managing Director of AirTV, and producer George Kiedrowski about the making of Yorkshire Air 999. 

Matt and George reveal what it takes to film alongside paramedics, pilots, and doctors during emergencies – and how the programme has helped raise awareness and support for the charity.

Each month, our crew is called to deliver urgent, lifesaving care, and regular donations help us stay ready for every mission.  

To set up a regular gift, text YAA5 to 70460 to give £5 a month.

Thank you

If you want to find out more about Yorkshire Air Ambulance you can visit our website Yorkshire Air Ambulance

Welcome to Summat In t'Air, the podcast by Yorkshire Air Ambulance. 2025 marks 25 years of Yorkshire Air Ambulance flying helicopters and saving lives across the region. So to celebrate, we're sharing stories of rescues and a glimpse of life at the charity.

People are fascinated by the work that these guys do and of course, as Sam says to him, it's just a job. But, you know, to most people doing more standard jobs, this is the most exciting job in the world.

I bet you've seen Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew on your telly over the last few years, they've been filmed regularly flying over the region, saving lives. But what about the people behind the camera? What's it like making a TV show covering the work the crew does on real life missions? I'm joined by Matt Richards, AirTV's managing director, and George Kiedrowski, one of the producers who is often up in the air with the crew filming for Yorkshire Air 999.

It's a story that goes back almost 20 years now. We were a team working in house at the BBC at the time at BBC Yorkshire, and we made a feature for the Inside out programme. When I think the air ambulance got a new aircraft based up at Leeds Bradford Airport. And then shortly after that had been filmed totally separately, Richard Hammond, filming an episode of Top Gear, crashed a jet car quite famously over at Elvington airfield. And the air ambulance went, gave that emergency response that meant that he had a great recovery and flew him to Leeds General Infirmary. So at the time we kind of thought, there's a TV series in this. And we were able to go to the BBC and say, would you like a daytime returning TV programme about an air ambulance charity in Yorkshire? And I think the conversation was along the lines of, if you can get Richard Hammond to present it, we'll take it. And actually, Richard, sort of as a favour to the people who kind of helped save his life, fronted that first series of what was Helicopter Heroes and then that ran and ran.

Rav Wilding presented it after that. We did eight series of that and then as that came to an end on the BBC, me and my colleagues Ian and Andy, who set up AirTV, so an independent production company, but we went to a broadcaster and said, would you like your own version of this show, which was UK TV at the time for the Really channel? And they said yes. So we kind of set up and that was our first programme. So we made Helicopter ER, which then ran for nine series and then as that kind of came to an end and kind of got relaunched again as Yorkshire Air 999, which this latest reiteration of this brilliant access that we've been able to work so closely with the air ambulance, capturing the work that they're doing every day, the amazing stories of the patients who let us tell their stories. And it's as popular now as it was back then. And so what a great sort of TV success story.

Well, you know, as well as I do anything with Yorkshire in, it sells really well, doesn't it, on tv? So George, you spin a lot of plates, you're, you're producer and you're also camera operator on board the helicopter. So can you sort of walk us through a typical flight assignment if you want. What's the process involved?

Yeah, so the nature of the access with the air ambulances as such that you can't obviously have a full camera crew on board, it just isn't practical and everything we do needs to be sort of low key. We need to be discreet and obviously sympathetic to the work that they're doing and not get in the way. So for that reason we have sort of a sole operator on each aircraft. We do full shifts with the crew. We work pretty much all year round and we just do, we follow one of their shifts. So we do a 12 hour shift with the team and we're just on call with them. So when the buzzer goes, we need to be able to respond and get in the aircraft as quickly as they do and attend jobs that they go to as they go to them. So yeah, a typical day for us.

We're all trained as what's called technical crew members as well, which gives us some extra responsibilities. So if the aircraft needs washing or the fuel needs check in, we help them, them with that as well. But yeah, typically we arrive in, sometimes do breakfast if you're one of the good crews, and then we head off with them when they go to a job and just sort of watch the work that they do, which is a huge privilege and I've been doing it for on and off 15 years and yeah, you can't keep me away from the plane.

Fifteen years. Well, you clearly enjoy it and you don't have a fear of flying.

Well, here's an irony actually. I'm not a big fan of flying an aircraft.

Oh really?

It helps when you're in contact with the pilot and they're all very capable. So now I feel fine in a helicopter.

Okay, so the helicopters are not huge. They're sort of quite cramped in many ways, aren't they? So how logistically do you Move around with your equipment, your filming equipment.

Yeah, it's certainly an interesting space to work in, and it's one that takes a little while to get used to. I know we've had crew members in the past who've struggled to fit in the seats because they're tall. Luckily, I am vertically challenged, so it's not a problem for me. But we've got. We try to use smaller cameras and I mean, like the crew, I guess, you know, like the paramedics and the doctors and the pilots, they have to learn to work within a small space, and it's part of the challenge of the job. And it's the same for us, really. We just have to learn to adapt to that, to that space. And there's a lot of contorting your body into funny positions to try and hold the camera and try and stay out of the way is the biggest, biggest difficulty, really.

But we also use mini cameras in the aircraft as well to be able to capture what's going on in the front while our guys are sitting in the back. We've got little GoPro cameras that kind of run and capture all of that in the air as well. And then we're able to record the intercom so that you hear all of that exchange on the radios from the air desk to the pilots and the crew who are on the way to the jobs as well. So it kind of captures all of that. So our guys not only are looking after their own camera and the sound and what they're recording, but they've also got mini cameras that the medics are wearing and those that have fixed in the aircraft as well. So there's quite a lot going on.

Sure. Technology really has moved on in that respect, hasn't it? Cameras are smaller, more mobile. You can have more of them.

Yeah, exactly. When we started doing this, what we call the paracams, the paramedic cameras, it was a kind of, basically a tape recorder strapped to the side with a kind of big box that was recording onto mini DV tapes. And now, of course, yeah, it's all just on kind of micro SD cards. Super fast, 4K quality. Yeah. So technology's moved on and we've been able to adjust the programme along a new sort of different camera systems and. And aerial filming with helicopters and drones on certain scenarios as well.

So, yeah, technology's really helped us make the show as well.

So that's the flight kind of to the incident. Talk us through what happens at the incident once you jump off the aircraft. How does filming and things take place there.

Yeah. So we go forward with the crew and obviously we're really aware all the time of what we're going to. So right from when the job comes in to the base, we try to get a good ear on what's going on because not everything is appropriate for us to go forward to. We only go forward as well, knowing that the crew are happy for us to go with them. Before you even get to the job, there's often quite a scramble or a bit of a hike to get to get to the location, which is a challenge in itself. I can't really complain about that because I'm not carrying two ginormous bags like the crew. But, yeah, there's a bit of a challenge to get to see. And then obviously we approach sort of tentatively, as we approach the casualty and go forward with the crew, it's really difficult because quite often with these things, you don't really ever know what you're fully attending.

Of course, they do get information about the patient before we arrive, but I would say nine times out of 10, the information that you get and the information and what's happening when you get there is very different. So we go forward with the crew, sort of filming them at a distance before obviously speaking to family members or friends to get permission to continue filming. The big thing is to sort of stay out of the way, but to be able to capture what they're doing. As Matt said, the mini cameras that they wear help with that. But, yeah

That must be quite difficult, mustn't it? Kind of trying to keep out of the way. But getting to film.

Yeah.

Needs to be filmed, really.

Yeah, it is, but we've. The good thing, and the thing I enjoy about working on this show is that the team who've worked with the crew have worked with them for so many years that in fact, this many of the crew, I don't think have ever worked without a camera there. So in a weird way, we've kind of been there before a lot of the crew, and so hopefully they just got used to us being around. And never at any point do we take for granted sort of the access and the privilege that we've got of being with the team. And the last thing any of us ever want to do is get in the way, cause further upset or cause them any extra work. So, you know, it takes a while. But I think because the team that work on the. On this show particularly have done it for such a long time and we've worked with them for such a long time, it's like it's almost second nature now to know where you can stand and to have an understanding of the things that they're going to do. Like a lot of the processes are quite the same, you know, the treatment that they give. Because again, we've been doing it for such a long time, we kind of have an idea of what's coming and what's going to happen next. So it means that we can sort of get ahead of where we need to be and try and stay out the way.

I'm trying to imagine the situation now where you've turned up. There's a casualty on the ground, they're still conscious. Do you ask them if it's all right to film or do you simply film everything and ask for permission afterwards?

Yeah, so it all depends on the circumstance. But our guys will, at the first suitable opportunity, introduce who we are to the, to the patient and explain the process of filming. But everything's done in a sort of a two tier way. So we're not asking anyone to agree to being on a programme at that point. It's kind of explaining what we're doing, that we filmed the work of them. Are you all right for us to carry on? We'll have a chat to you about it when you're feeling better. And then that second stage that happens, potentially weeks, potentially months later, where we're in touch with the family, we're in touch with the patient and then we can have what we'd say in the industry, a sort of an informed, fully informed consent where they've recovered. There's no adrenaline of what's just happened.

And then we can have a conversation about whether they're happy for that to be shown on the programme. And often they see rough cuts of what, what we've done. Often they'd like to see it before it goes out, understandably. And we've shown it to family members and such like. So we need to make sure everyone's totally happy with that. And what's great is that I think the patients, a lot of good can sometimes come from that, from something that terrible that's happened to them. And it can be quite therapeutic for them to sort of process it in their mind. Sometimes they don't remember much about what's happened or how it happened.

And I think a lot of patients have found it a really positive experience being part of the programme, particularly knowing the impact the programme has in terms of the fundraising that keeps the helicopters flying and keeps the whole thing moving forward so that there can be a real Sort of nice positive outcome from something which of course is a sort of terrible incident that's happened in the first place.

And what's the proportion of people who do give you permission rather than those who don't? Is it majority of people?

It is the majority, yeah. And, you know, we've always sort of was massively grateful for it, but also kind of surprised because you logic would say, you know, why would anyone, you know, want to be on a show like this when something awful has just happened to them? But it's all of those other sort of factors. I think people have such a love and affinity with Yorkshire Air Ambulance. It's such an iconic sort of bright yellow helicopter that just constantly does good. And having that ability to turn something personal that's happened to that individual into something good that helps, you know, raise that money. I think a really nice positive feel to the programme as well. So I think it helps on a lot of levels.

Yeah. And just to add to that, it always blows my mind, actually, the amount of times we arrive on scene an incident and people, well, they know the show, for one, but they definitely know the air ambulance and a lot of them even know the names of the crew. And, you know, the show has existed in so many different forms over so many years that we arrive on scene and people, like, they're literally, you know, mentioning people by name and it always, always surprises me when they say, oh, It's Yorkshire Air 99. Or it's helicopter ER, yeah, film us, of course, film us. I think it's just people in Yorkshire. I've worked on several air ambulance shows in different regions and it blows my mind, actually, how proud everyone is of the air ambulance in this region. They really know the air ambulance, they know the work that they do and they really want to support them in any way.

And sometimes I think it's like you arrive with a camera and people say, yeah, you know, film us. It's quite an unusual thing. I've worked in TV for a long time and it doesn't happen everywhere, I can promise you that.

I can imagine, absolutely. So have you ever been. Have you ever had to walk home?

Yes. So I used to do the job that George does now and yeah, several times. Thankfully, not so much now, actually. The new aircraft are slightly bigger than ones we used to have. They've got more power, so they can carry more people. But, yeah, absolutely.

And of course there are occasions when, you know, if the patient is a child and the parent needs to travel with them. Of course, we're the ones that are going to get left. And, you know, I've been left on the top of Pen-y- Ghent.

Have you really?

Yeah, I have with the mountain rescue team, I've got to say. So they were great. And, you know, I'll kind of walk down with them and then. Got a lift down to the station ****and the train home. *****Yeah, exactly. And of course, you're dressed in your orange flight suit at this point and lots of people are asking questions, but, you know, it's kind of part of it, part of the fun and unpredictability of the job. Yes. You've had a few sort of abandoned minutes as well.

Yeah. It's the reason why you always make sure that you cook the pilot breakfast those bacon butties. it's not a coincidence? No, definitely. Yeah. We've. There's been many times where I've, you know, I've gone out and I've forgot my, forgot my purse or whatever and I've been messing you Matt, haven't I? Like I'm stuck somewhere or I'm at a police station because I've managed to hitch a ride that far.

Yeah, we, we've, we've had some interesting journeys back. I can think in the WhatsApp group, the amount of times that members have got pictures with the helmets under one arm on a train, you know.

Yeah, because of course, across Air TV we work on different programmes as well. And so, yeah, you'll just get a random message in the group saying, does anyone happen to be filming near Helmsley? Give me a lift back to Nostell. And fortunately, sometimes there are those people around. So.

Yeah, well, I can imagine that, you know, going to incidents, you see many terrible things. But are there any amusing incidents that you, you remember?

Oh, there is one for me, actually. And I can only say it was amusing because everybody was ultimately okay. But we got called to an incident where someone had fallen off a wheel of death at the circus, which of course is not amusing in itself, but it was quite amusing to land in the field next door and see the doctors and the paramedic crew have to navigate zebras and camels. And sort of like at one point we turn around and there was a dog sat on the back of a donkey wearing a clown's outfit. So that was an unusual day at the office

And it was really nice to go back to film with them because that performer had made a great recovery. We went back and filmed him back at the circus again, didn't we? And for the sequences we do at the end of the programme where you kind of see patients recovering, and that's one of the great things about it as well. But. But in every incident, and this is what we try to capture in the show, there's just those heartwarming, brilliant moments where, you know, the medics are so good with the patients and that sort of interactivity is great. And, you know, there's just a couple in this last kind of series. You know, Tammy, one of the paramedics, has this brilliant exchange in the back of the aircraft with this young lad, and she's just being really kind to him and like, you know, holding his hand and such, like, to reassure him, and he's like, hang on, steady on, I've got a girlfriend. And there's just these brilliant moments that just capture, capture that kind of human compassion between people.

So regardless of how serious the injuries are, there's always that brilliant sort of human connection, which I think is a real key part of the programme and just shows the brilliance of everyone who works for this charity.

We've got Sam with us now, a paramedic who's regularly filmed by the production team. Tell us, Sam, what's it like having cameras around you on a mission when you're doing your job?

So it definitely takes some getting used to. I'm quite a baby to this production to a certain extent. You know, you've got the likes of Sammy and Andy, who have been here for many years, but I think I've been here for just under four years now. I always remember the first sortie in our training period for. For the air ambulance, we were sat in a room and in they brought George to sort of, you know, explain how the filming process went and how we weren't to be worried. And of course, you know, we're joining the ambulance.

It's a big thing for anyone that wants to be here. So we watched the programmes. I think the first programme probably came out when I was 13, so, you know, I've been watching it for a few years. So I had a good idea about what happened. But that's from behind the TV screen. That's not sort of in front of the cameras. And I think probably some of the biggest concerns are in the medical world. We're our own biggest critics.

And what we don't want to do is make ourselves look silly, especially in front of patients and on tv. So that's probably one of the biggest things that we have to overcome. George came in and she sort of explained how it wasn't like that at all. They're not here to make us look silly. They just want to, you know, portray what we do in the best way possible. That alleviated some of the fears, but I think there's always that first time being on camera, just not knowing really what to expect. Yeah, you might do an interview for a TikTok video or something like that, but never quite as big as tv. So it's quite strange.

I've worked on other productions in the past from sort of a medical perspective, doing the medical coverage, and one thing I've noticed is there's the people that go behind the camera and there's the people that are in front of the camera and there's a big disconnect between that and that's what we were sort of expecting. But here it wasn't like that at all. And, you know, these guys that film the tv show from all of AIR TV, they're not just colleagues, but their friends. And I think that's probably what makes it such a successful production, because as soon as you're with your friends, then you're not worried.

You're not worried about what you. You're saying, what you're doing, because you've got that.

That you act naturally and.

Yeah, you've got that ultimate trust in people. So that's absolutely fantastic. And I think that's. That's what makes it such. It gives it that raw sense of, you know, what we actually do is. Is conveyed on TV and there's nothing. There's nothing fake about it.

Do you just forget that the camera is there?

Yeah. Yeah, you do. I think to a certain extent, these guys are ultimate professionals. You know, they've been doing it years. They know when to be there, they know when not to be there and they know where to be. And I think that's probably the biggest thing is they just blend in with the background.

Have you ever been recognised being a famous paramedic now?

Oh, I won't say a famous paramedic. There's certain times, I think, as George mentioned previously, you know, you get to a scene, you're walking through, there's often people that are looking stood out on the street, a big yellow helicopter just landing in the field where they live. So obviously they want to come and see. And you do hear people say, oh, that's Sam, or that's this person, or that's that person. Which is always quite hard to understand because for us it's a job. You know, we're not doing it for the fame. We're not doing it to be on TV, we're doing it to help patients with this amazing platform that we've got.

There are certain times when you walk around supermarkets or whatever and you hear someone whisper to the friend, like, oh, that's thingy off that programme.

So that's when you get out your publicity card and sign it and here you are.

That's it. Yeah, yeah. No, I think you've got the likes of Andy Armitage and, you know, Sammy Wills, who've been doing it for years. Andy mentioned a time he was camping and over three certain instances in the day, different people came over and said, oh, you, Andy Armitage, off tv. So he gets it much more than we do.

So, Matt, how do you put together the series and episodes, especially when you don't know what you're going to get called out to?

Yeah, so it's a really unpredictable show to make, you know, a lot of them. You can kind of plan how many filming days you might need per episode. Of course, with this, you could have three or four really interesting incidents per day that all get the consent and, you know, you've almost filled a programme in a day's filming. Other times you can go days on end stuck in the fog at Topcliffe and nothing's happening. So it can be kind of quite predictable. But basically we go through the process of gathering all of the incidents that are filmable, where we've got the consent on scene and then we've got our consents team. So a consents researcher who generally goes out and visits and gets in touch with all of the patients to chat through the process. And then when they're happy for us to progress, then we'll start editing those jobs together.

We've got our video editors who look at all of the footage that's shot from the main camera, all of those GoPros in the helicopter, plus the body cameras that the doctors and the paramedics wear. And then that all gets edited together into a sort of relatively large, long item. And then we look at the structure of a programme. You kind of want, you know, the big serious incident at the top of the show, and then generally something a bit sort of warmer, heart warming towards the end. And in the middle, you're looking at a split of different types of jobs. You don't want a load of motorbikes all in one programme, or you don't want to have all leg injuries, you know, you might have a cardiac arrest or a road crash and then something outdoorsy. Like a rock climber or whatever. you're kind of structuring the episode and keep moving that around all the time.

And then we edit those all together and we're making a commercial hour which runs for about 45 minutes with the advert breaks. And then there's that kind of a long process of checking. everyone's happy with it. So, of course, the patients are the first to make sure they've seen what they're happy with, which bits, in terms of how gory certain injuries might be and how happy they are with that. And then there's all the medical details. So, you know, within the charity, it goes for a viewing with the medical director, with the head of aviation, with the charity staff as well. So everyone's kind of looking at it and then feeding back. Oh, actually, we haven't quite described what that drug's doing particularly well. Or why don't we add this extra bit of clarity as to why they went to this hospital rather than this one? So we take all of those kind of notes back on board and then we send that to the commissioning channel, which is Warner Brothers Discovery, for our show, and then we get some notes back on that as well. And, yeah, it's kind of. It becomes this huge collaborative process where we gather all of that information and then we get the show together, we send it off, and then 9 o' clock on a Friday night, it's on the telly and everyone enjoys it.

Wow, that is absolutely amazing. Because it's tempting to think, isn't it? You just film it, clip it together. I say clip it together. When we call those cameras. There must be a big, big job to edit all out there.

Yeah.

And then bung it out on telly. It's not quite like that.

No, it's a huge process. Yeah, of course. And because of the sensitivity of it, there's extra processes. You know, our lawyer watches it all, you know, in terms of privacy and, you know, access and third parties and, you know, we'll potentially need to blur certain people where the consent hasn't been there for bystanders or other people on scene. So, yeah, there's a long process to go through. But that kind of transparency in what we do, I think, has been an absolute key part of why this relationship with the air ambulance has been so good and goes on for so long, you know, that everyone's got the confidence that although, yes, of course, the programme is a independently produced documentary programme, we all appreciate that we need to make sure everything's accurate and everything's correct. And, you know, there's a lot at stake to making sure it's. It's the right content there.

Well, that's quite an eye opener for me, for sure. Part of the. Or the most heartwarming part of the programme must be going back to people afterwards, to patients afterwards, and see how they've recovered and how they've got over their trauma. Would you agree?

Yeah, totally. So we're in a really privileged position and it's interesting, chatting to the paramedics, that normally in your life you kind of. You treat patients and very rarely hear what happened afterwards. And of course, through this programme, we'll often come in the next day, say, did you know that that person who maybe a couple of months ago has actually now, you know, got back on the motorbike or is, you know, horse riding again or whatever they're doing? And I think you guys find that quite an interesting part of this. And, you know, we sometimes do visits back here where they'll kind of meet you as well.

It's a great full circle. You know, a paramedic on the road. Paramedic on a DCA, a double crewed ambulance the road ambulances that we have, you might go back to the hospital. You might see a patient in the corridor or maybe ask one of the medical staff there what happened. But you only get a snippet of what happened and you don't generally get to see them, understand what's gone on and say, hi with AirTV.

And the patients that we go to often, AirTV tell us what's happened with the patients because they've been in that position where they can go and speak to them, understand and sort of document what's actually happened. And it's always quite humbling from our perspective because some of the feedback that comes back is they remember what we did for them. Again, we're just doing a job, or we like to think that we're just doing a job, but our actions actually have a big impact on people's lives. So to be able to firstly hear what's happened to the patient is fantastic. But to get that feedback about how we made them feel and how we made that terrible day just a little bit better, it's fantastic.

So after all the years of making this TV programme, there must have been some classic bloopers.

Oh, there have been some cracking moments. Yeah. So what's brilliant, like Sam was saying about, you know, you're not just working with colleagues who you massively respect. But actually they've all become friends as well. Whenever at Air TV we have any sort of summer parties, Christmas parties, that includes everyone who is part of that show. And of course, that includes all of the doctors, paramedics, pilots, technical crew members and charity staff as well. Yeah, at our Christmas parties. We tend to have our Christmas outtakes, and this show certainly has a few of them.

Of course, the classics are the kind of getting stuck on barbed wire fences and all of that sort of stuff on the way to jobs. But as part of our programme, we've got some fixed cameras in the crew room as well, so we can capture the moment. The 999 calls are coming in. There was a classic with one of the paramedics who fell off his chair while he was just sort of leaning back on there, which was. He was fine. But it made for a brilliant moment. And, you know. Yeah, there's all sorts of other sort of funny moments along the lines. You know, increasingly there are the lighter moments on the jobs we want to keep in the main programme anyway, because I think viewers really enjoy it. But, yeah, there's those sort of slightly daft moments where you do it again. And actually the Christmas tapes are always quite entertaining with those bloopers and outtakes.

Yeah, I should imagine they were. Yes. We used to have them at Calendar as well. on the tv

Well, the format's clearly, you know, successful. How much longer do you think it will be able to go on for? Well, hopefully a long time.

Yeah, hopefully. And there's no reason not to, you know, people are fascinated by the work that these guys do. And of course, as Sam says, you know, to him it's just a job. But, you know, to most people doing more standard jobs, this is the most exciting job in the world. And you know, this. If you're working in a shop or selling insurance or staying at home all day, actually seeing what these guys are doing and the massive impact they're making is brilliant. And as you said in the introduction about the nature of Yorkshire and how that kind of sells in TV land, that's because Yorkshire is the best place in the world to make this. The variety of the landscape is just brilliant. We've got the national parks and the coast, but also the big industrial centres and the motorway network. And there is nowhere else in the country that would have that variety of incidents to be able to showcase the critical care work that these guys do. But also the Yorkshire people, you know, they are naturally funny people. You know, when you go to a farmer who's hurt himself, these farmers do not end up calling 999. And certainly not a job that would need an air ambulance unless, you know, they absolutely need it. But their kind of stoic nature is just really interesting on the telly. And you know, everyone who does outdoor pursuits and such like in this part of the world, you know, they're all nice sparky people and that translates well to the telly as well as of course, the crew are all, you know, such brilliant personalities as well, yeah, it's definitely the best place in the world to be making a show like this.

The audience is showing no sign of going away. We hope we're still here in another 20 years still talking about the same programme.

Long may it continue. Yeah, and it's to going. It's kind of a symbiotic process as well, isn't it? You know, if there was no Yorkshire Air Ambulance, you wouldn't be able to make your programme. And by the virtue of the fact you are making your programme is great publicity for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, isn't it in raising fundraising?

Exactly. There's probably few programmes with such a big inbuilt kind of social, real purpose to it. Of course we're making a programme that people enjoy watching, but that has to always be done sensitively. We're massively grateful to the patients who, you know, obviously allow us to share their stories on the programme. But yeah, I think everyone's aware that just that visibility all the time, you know, not just in the uk but around the world, just really helped and you know, ultimately leads to donations. Will's legacies, you know, it's hard to translate directly to, you know, someone's watched the programme, therefore suddenly that evening they're donating to the air ambulance. But it's a much more sort of long term visibility thing, which is obviously really important for the charity.

I think it can't be underestimated as well. What you guys do for us, you know, once you've got over your nerves, being on tv, it just becomes second nature. But ultimately you guys are part of the team. And I know there's certain days or certain weeks at a time, for whatever reason, whether it's weather or aircraft serviceability that, you know, they're not here filming. It does feel like that, that hole in the team because, you know, they've been here for so many years and they just are part of the gang, essentially. I always remember a job that, a particularly nasty job that would never, ever go on TV that myself and Matt went to. Obviously, Matt didn't film it, but it would have been quite easy for him to stay at the aircraft or just leave the scene and not get involved. But he waited outside the door just to make sure everyone was okay when they came out of that particular incident. And that just speaks volumes for how integrated these guys are and what great people they are.

Isn't that great to hear how well the TV crew and helicopter crew get on so well and are almost one team now? I think that comes across perfectly in the programme, too. You don't get the stories the AirTV team do without that level of trust and sensitivity. Long may this partnership continue so that we can see more of those amazing rescues and, of course, the lovely shots of the Yorkshire landscape.

If you want to see more of what goes on at Yorkshire Air Ambulance, go to our website, yorkshireairambulance.org.uk where you can also donate to help keep us flying.

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