RNLI celebrates ‘extraordinary people’ in run up to 200th anniversary

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has put together a new podcast series featuring 200 episodes that show how the charity has evolved over the last two centuries.

The 200 Voices podcast features stories from extraordinary people who rescue, have been rescued and have real-life experiences of the RNLI. It seeks to commemorate its past, celebrate today’s lifesavers and inspire a new generation for the next 200 years and beyond.

The RNLI celebrates 200 years on 4 March 2024 and the podcast is part of a series of activities that the charity is launching in the run up to the anniversary.

Releasing one ten-minute podcast every day from the launch on 18 August, listeners can hear about the beginnings of the charity, as well as from well-known names such as actress Joanna Scanlan who has not only included the RNLI in her TV work but also needed them in real life.

Jim Moir – well known to us as the comedian Vic Reeves – tells the story of how he’s not just a funny man but a talented artist who sees the RNLI in action off the coast of Deal and has raised money for them for many years. “I’ve spent a lot of my life in the sea,” he tells the podcast “It feels so right to donate to RNLI.”