Helicopter Heroes is a British daytime television series, following the lifesaving work of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. First screened on BBC One in 2007, its first presenter was Top Gear's Richard Hammond. He agreed to front the show to thank the Yorkshire Air Ambulance crew which flew him to hospital in their helicopter after his near-fatal jet engine powered car crash at Elvington Airfield near York.
Very high audience appreciation ratings (AIs) led the BBC 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 presenter Rav Wilding.
Helicopter Heroes is now on air in Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia.
Unusually, it is entirely edited in a hangar at Leeds Bradford Airport 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. They have flown more than 1,000 missions in the Yorkshire Air Ambulance's two MD900 Explorer 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 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, firefighters, air ambulance crews and paramedics.
Celebrity contributors have included Prince Andrew, TV presenter James May, TV chef Gordon Ramsay and cricketer Ian Botham. One celebrity who declined to appear was Jeremy Kyle after the Yorkshire Air Ambulance was called to an accident involving his car on a stretch of the A1 in Yorkshire, as Helicopter Heroes is transmitted at the same time as his ITV show The Jeremy Kyle Show.
The crew including dispatchers, helimed 99 and helimed 98 are -
Sky Cops - BBC TV series about British Police Air Support Units