Radio review

There was an attractive lyricism to Lifeboats On the Thames (Radio 4). Presenter Horatio Clare's words and intonation bobbed about like vessels on choppy water, and he is never one to dodge figurative language in favour of literal. So, tourist boats on the Thames were said to be "like huge glass and steel shoeboxes", and rivers "made of stories".

It worked well to soften the edges of the facts and produce an evocative account. There is an in-built peculiarity about lifeboats rescuing people from the Thames, not least because many will be in the water deliberately. One woman, we heard, "wasn't very keen on being rescued". Some people fight their rescuers to stay in. "They've been in the river; they're drowning - you can see it in their mind," said one volunteer.

The other difference is that rescue on a busy river needs to be even faster than at sea. The waterway is full of traffic, and the water is less protective. "We're not operating in salty water, where people might be more buoyant," explained one rescuer. The boats are normally launched within 60 seconds, and they belt away from the station. "It's a speedboat, really," Clare noted, "a handsome beast."