Trucking Hell - Episode Guide

The Beast from the East descends, bringing some of the country's busiest roads to a standstill.

A heavy loader carrying cardboard bales tips onto its side. The quaint rural roads of Staffordshire are seemingly no match for former army boy Jim. On a Midlands mission, snow threatens to leave rescuer Mark stranded.

When a fully loaded double deck curtain-sided HGV rolls over on the A6, Fluff and his team need to create a second mess to solve the first. Jim is sent to recover a broken down truck from a council waste tip facility, but working among the rubbish is not particularly pleasant.

Marcus Charman and colleague Trigger patch up an HGV's fuel tank during evening rush hour. Tez resorts to using a blowtorch to fix a car transporter's snapped spring. And a broken down driver gives out the wrong location.

On one of the UK's busiest roads, a jackknifed HGV has careered through a front garden, over a ditch and blocked a lane of traffic. Meanwhile, Jim's mettle is tested and Steve has to quell a rebellion.

In a quiet rural village in Leicestershire, a utility truck has got stuck in the mud in a local resident's garden. Adam and his team are under pressure to get it out without causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to the property.

Near the junction to East Midlands airport, a trailer sheds its load and causes rush hour chaos. Adam dispatches a crack team of his finest recovery ops, but will they be able to resolve the situation?

A 20-tonne digger has been written off after it fell into the Thames. Rory is dispatched to rescue a Sprinter which is blocking a bus lane, and Jim has to work fast to get a stranded HGV driver to safety.

A seven car motorway pile-up leaves a local council's waste truck in trouble. Fluff does his best to shift one of the heaviest loads his vehicle can lift. Meanwhile, Fluff's girlfriend Marta is called to a stranded truck in a quarry.

A burnt out van abandoned on an isolated towpath presents a serious challenge for Steve and Marta, but the solution comes in the form of a bespoke, bright yellow rescue truck.

A 44 tonne Artic straddling the central reservation of the M1 is a rush hour headache for Incident Manager Steve and his colleague Pat. Recovery op Steve rescues a broken down dustcart from a busy London street. Recovery op Jim gets drenched as he risks life and limb trying to rescue a tractor. On the night shift, Jason faces a battle to rescue an articulated lorry that has crashed down a steep ditch off the A1.

Steve is called to the scene of an overturned gas tanker that may be leaking highly flammable propane. Sean is asked to pick up an abandoned scaffolding lorry that is blocked in on a dead end street, locked and with no key.

Things are far from simple for the recovery crews this week. When a loaded HGV suffers a puncture on a busy motorway, Crouch recovery op Jim Howard and heavy vehicle mechanic Jack Watson, are called to the scene.

A digger has fallen off the back of a lorry and rolled over on its side - blocking one side of a busy A road. Richard Crouch and recovery op Lee Brown have a hay bale of a time trying to get a valuable straw load on a broken down trailer back safely to its owner. Recovery op Marta earns her daily bread rescuing a stricken van load of loaves.

At Crouch HQ, there is excitement in the air as the team help to make trucking superfan Chris's wedding day extra special.

Dave and Adam are under pressure to recover a 100 tonne train engine before it sinks into the soft ground. Jim has to rescue a lorry that has become stuck in a ditch.

Simon grapples with a juggernaut that has skidded off the M62 and is leaking diesel. Rory deals with a mobile library that's been the victim of a shocking arson attack.

A luxury coach gives up the ghost on a busy motorway slip road. A straightforward job segues into disaster for Marta. Scott races to recover a damaged trailer before dark descends.

Jim must rescue a 32-tonne truck from a soft dirt embankment. Chris manouevres a skip lorry out of city centre traffic. Marta is driven around the bend trying to deliver a 48-foot articulated bus.

Jim and his team face a difficult foggy morning on the M1 when a crash between two artics causes a five-mile-long tailback.

Veteran driver Jim attends an emergency call-out to recover a lorry that has broken down bang in the middle of a busy ring road. Motor racing fanatic Merrie has a hunch she may have landed her dream job when she attends a broken down lorry.

Steve and the team find themselves in deep water when they attempt to recover a car that has crashed into a river. Jim is tasked with recovering a van that has become wedged on top of a garden wall.

Steve battles rush hour traffic to manoeuvre his recovery vehicle around the narrow roads to get to a 7.5-tonne lorry out of a ditch, while Rory must deliver a dodgy van to a scrapyard for destruction.

Lantern's only female driver Merrie is tasked with the removal of an abandoned lorry, but it is soon clear this will not be a routine job. As she takes a closer look, she discovers that not only has the lorry been used as a mobile home, but that it is housing many a guilty secret.

Rory risks life and limb to recovered a skip lorry from the M1. Jim has a happy reunion with his own truck. Chris has to find a way of separating two HGVs that have somehow become wedged together.

Jim faces mayhem on the motorway when a massive pile-up blocks the busy M1.

Marta and Pat have to pull a bin lorry out of a muddy ditch. But first they must battle their way through a thick wall of thorns.

Jim and Steve face one of their riskiest recoveries when a tanker carrying highly corrosive pure sulphuric acid smashes into the central reservation of a busy A road and overturns.

It is all hands to the pumps at a bus depot in Tamworth, where Crouch's finest are joined by Lanterns' Merrie. Just days after Christmas the owners lost their school coaches to a devastating fire and need the wreckage removed.

A smouldering, 44-tonne food lorry blocks an M1 slip road.

A milk tanker needs rescuing from a boggy field.

Steve goes into battle with a heavyweight transformer.

Nick is tasked with finding a 4 x 4.

Tez is tasked with a tricky recovery on one of the UK's deadliest roads as, thanks to a damaging bird strike, a 44-tonne artic needs rescuing from the side of the A1.

Incident Manager Steve tackles a major job on the A1 following a collision, and must coordinate the recovery of a bin lorry that is now lying on its side in a ditch.

Steve and his team must recover a 26-tonne lorry that careered off the motorway, catapulted across a six-foot ditch, broke through a fence and landed 30 metres away from the road.

In the middle of Storm Ciara, a team from Crouch Recovery is called into action. They must recover a truck and trailer that has blown over in the wild winds.

Following men and women working in the heavy recovery business, as they tackle jack-knifed lorries, crashed HGVs and roadside breakdowns.

At the start of the pandemic, but before the lockdown, a lorry containing vital medical supplies is involved in a collision with another truck on a busy A-road in Leicestershire. Merle heads to Gravesend to winch out a delivery truck that has got stuck in an alleyway, and Marta picks up a bin lorry whose rear steering is broken - but getting such a large vehicle onto a low-loader is no mean feat.

Tez has a difficult job getting a bin lorry out of a ditch, which is so tricky he has to call for back-up. A straightforward lift and shift turns nasty when Lee comes up against a stubborn prop shaft, while Merrie faces a race against time to recover a broken-down eight-wheeler stranded by the River Thames.

Buzz battles to recover the tractor cab of a lorry smeared with manure. Stig needs assistance when he is called to rescue a lorry that careered off the road on the busy A47.

Buzz is sent to rescue a double decker artic.

Steve rescues a burning transporter loaded with cars.

A 44-tonne lorry loaded with loo roll has blocked the A50.

A trailer rolls over on a busy roundabout.

When a huge truck rolls over, blocking a busy dual carriageway in Derby, operations manager Steve needs to draw on his years of experience to tackle the job.

Ant and Matt face up to a catastrophic lorry crash on a narrow road, transport manager Dan is called to an offroad nightmare, and a seven-tonne lorry slides off a country lane.

A truck careers off the A1, smashing through the side barrier and gets tangled up in live electrics. Even worse, there is a gas pipe a couple of feet away.

When a bin lorry crashes onto its side, company boss Adam is tested to the max. In blizzard conditions, Lee has been landed with a 44-tonne headache.

Michael is faced with a dustcart leaning dangerously by a ditch, and Lee has to right an expensive tractor that has rolled over on a busy roundabout.

When a horsebox breaks down on the notoriously busy M25, Lantern's heavy operations manager Michael is in for a rocky ride. Meanwhile, Buzz is dicing with danger on the A42.

Crouch recovery op Buzz has to abandon his wrecker as he attempts to rescue a stranded skip lorry, while Merrie is faced with a 26-tonne water tanker stuck on a narrow muddy lane.

Martin leads four of the Lantern troops in an all-night rescue when a 44-tonne articulated lorry careers off the road, spilling fuel and its load.

Disaster strikes on a small country lane in Leicestershire when a 40-tonne truck jackknifes across both lanes.

Disaster strikes on the M42 when a huge transporter carrying four brand new electric Audis goes up in flames.

Following men and women working in the heavy recovery business, as they tackle jack-knifed lorries, crashed HGVs and roadside breakdowns.

Steve comes to the rescue when a trailer rolls over on a busy roundabout on the A46, scattering hay bales everywhere, while Lantern recovery op Merrie faces a recovery nightmare.

When a 44-tonne truck rolls over and blocks a busy dual carriageway in Derby, operations manager Steve needs all his know-how to tackle the job.

Ant and Matt arrive at the scene of a catastrophic lorry crash on a narrow road. A truck is wedged three metres deep in a boggy dyke after coming a cropper in the freezing fog.

Crouch Recovery op Steve Hodges gets called to a truck stranded in a park. 

A 15-tonne water tanker has been swallowed by a sinkhole in Wokingham town centre. Lantern lass Merrie rushes to the scene, where her concern is what might lurk within.

A coach that has crashed into a hedgerow requires some creative thinking to get rescued; a lorry carrying a machine part needs assistance getting up a steep hill.

A coach that has driven off the road into a hedgerow needs to be rescued before rush hour; a bin lorry has gotten stuck in the mud on a narrow country road.

In a muddy Leicestershire field, recovery op Simon is confronted with not one, but two trucks in need of rescuing. The first got stuck following its satnav, while the second came a cropper trying to pull it free, making this recovery job a little out of the ordinary! Initially, Simon tries to pull both vehicles out at the same time using a daisy-chain technique he learnt in the army. As he begins this epic pull, the two 7.5-tonners simply start to plough up the muddy field even more. His double truck winch-out idea hasn't gone to plan, so he must rethink his whole rescue plan. Lantern recovery op Merrie is on her way to urgently assist a stricken unit and trailer that's broken down at the entrance to a busy industrial estate in Kent. Once on the scene, Merrie gets to work immediately on what seems to be a straightforward recovery job. But when it comes to removing its half shaft for towing, Merrie needs to work next to the live traffic, putting herself in an extremely hazardous position with no protection from the passing vehicles that need to squeeze past just inches from her back. And Mick gets called out to a fully loaded artic that needs recovering from the side of the busy A45 in Northamptonshire. He needs to move quickly and clear the scene with the broken-down lorry. All is going to plan until he tries to locate the port to hook up the air line from his wrecker that will allow him to release its brakes for towing. No matter where he looks, he simply can't find the right working input, meaning his recovery effort has become as stuck as the truck he's trying to rescue!

There's a perilous situation on the M25 when a slide bed truck carrying a van loses both its offside wheels. It threatens to topple into the inside lane and, to make matters worse, it's on a blind bend just beyond a junction. Lantern recovery op Merrie faces a race against time to stabilise the vehicle and prevent a calamitous collapse before she can even consider towing it to safety. The process calls for two full motorway closures as well as a lane one closure throughout — yet not all motorists obey the rules, making this one of the most hazardous rescues Merrie has faced. In Leicester, Crouch Recovery boss Adam sends op Jamie out in a brand new tractor, after a misguided shortcut across a boggy green in a housing estate has caused a dustbin lorry to sink deep down into the mud. The lorry is so firmly wedged that initial towing attempts see it pulling the tractor back towards it, so Jamie must use all of the bespoke tractor's hardware to stand any chance of taking out this trash titan. With wintry weather setting in, the workload is increasing for op Kevin. While on shift with a double decker recovery truck, he has two jobs to contend with — one car that has had a collision with a petrol tanker and a second with a mechanical failure on the hard shoulder of the M6. Kevin must contend with an inaccessible car park, disgruntled customers and an absence of support on the motorway, while also being buffeted by the winds caused by HGVs hurtling past at 60mph.

It's Friday and, just as rush hour hits, a lorry load of fizzy drinks has exploded, going up in smoke and causing traffic chaos on the busy M1. The fire crew have extinguished the fire, and Highways England have completely shut the motorway to clear the burnt-out wreck. But nothing's too hot to handle for the Crouch team: incident manager Steve co-ordinates the clear-up and op Mark is on hand with his low-loader in this pressurized situation. A 44-tonne artic has veered off a tiny country lane and is well and truly stuck in the mud. With hardly enough room to swing a cat, let alone his recovery vehicle, Lee takes his chances and uses a single cable winch out to pull the beast out of its muddy grave. Over in Hertfordshire, recovery op Michael is also bogged down with a problem. A tractor unit and trailer delivering a container onto a rugby pitch can't find its footing in the mud. It's the first winch-out with Michael's new truck, so he's got to be on the ball to get it out — especially as it's his ex-boss! On the last job of his shift, 25-year-old Jordan's on a callout to clear a smashed-up electric car on a busy London through road. To shift it, he's forced to block a lane of traffic as rush hour peaks. But all attempts to get it off the road quick are going flat: Jordan can't find anywhere to attach his strop on the damaged front end, and sparks are flying as impatient drivers want to get home.

A lorry rolls over on the edge of a roundabout and a truck with blown suspension.

A serious blaze leaves a sewerage tanker stricken in a layby on the busy A1 motorway.

A mail lorry crashes on a London street and a bashed-up Audi is wedged in a ditch.

An overnight frost makes a road sweeper slide into a ditch.

A trailer catches fire and a lorry smashes into a tree.

A lorry grounded; a trucked wedged in mud; a truck crashes into a low bridge.

In Hertfordshire, Sean tries to shift a tractor unit and trailer fully laden with 27 tonnes of wood, after it left a busy section of road and toppled over into a muddy ditch.

An artic lorry stacked full of bed frames and mattresses has careered off a busy Lincolnshire A-road into a dry stone wall and is now lying in a ditch.

Return of the documentary following workers in the heavy recovery business. In Corby a 16-metre lorry loaded with waste flips over near a busy roundabout.

In this week's episode, company boss Adam Crouch detours from his morning office commute to attend the scene of a big incident. He leads the team as they try to rescue a rolled-over mixer truck full of tonnes of wet cement. Joining him in this biggest of jobs is patriarch of the family Dave Crouch, Adam's dad and a crane-driving expert. At Lantern, Merrie gets back on the road after a week's holiday in Italy only to discover her hydraulic levers have gremlins in the system — making it difficult to fix a broken-down truck's dodgy turbo. And in Leicestershire, things get wet and wild for Abang as he has to fish a Ford Focus out of a river.

In this week's episode, Crouch incident manger Steve and his team have been called out to a lorry that has caught fire on the extremely busy A1. By the time Steve arrives, the fire has been put out and Callum has pulled the tractor unit onto a low loader. But there's still the mammoth task of lifting what's left of the trailer onto another low loader. Steve and his team move a crane into position, but Dave notices that ash on the trailer is still burning — which could be extremely dangerous if the wind picks up, causing it to re-ignite. They decide to tip the trailer's remaining contents onto the road, making it much safer. Once this is done, they can concentrate on the lift, but the trailer is so badly damaged by fire that it could break up while in the air. So the team must be ultracautious as they attempt this recovery. Lantern boys Daniel and Steve have been called to rescue a trailer that's suffered a serious blow from the branch of an overhanging tree. The truck has managed to pull into its destination, but the trailer is so mashed up that it needs to be flattened, cut apart and flat packed for its ride home. Fortunately, there's an experienced forklift driver on hand who helps them flatten the trailer, but to cut it up takes more effort — and banter — than expected. With the help of a winch, a few grinder blades and much mutual ribbing, they get on with the job in hand. Meanwhile, in Market Harborough, Joe has been called out to recover a seriously damaged car that has been in a crash on a busy road. The police are already on scene when he arrives and are controlling the traffic. Joe gets out and makes a quick assessment of the car and the best way to recover it. Because it's so badly damaged, he decides to use the HIAB crane on his truck to lift it. But to do this, he will need the police to close the road, adding extra pressure as traffic quickly builds.

Lantern recovery op Stuart is called to assist in the rescue of a rollover, and finds an articulated lorry carrying at least 1,500 boxes of A4 paper has tipped over on a roundabout.

A crew trying to take care of a burned-out trailer struggles due to its missing wheels, and a broken down bus blocks a bus stop, with pedestrians complicating recovery efforts.

Three veteran recovery experts struggle with a terribly trashed truck; a rescue effort gets off to a bad start when the driver realises he's facing the wrong way.

A 15-tonne water tanker has been swallowed by a sinkhole in Wokingham town centre. Lantern lass Merrie rushes to the scene, where her concern is what might lurk within.

On the North York Moors, a 50 ton construction machine and the 20 ton trailer carrying it have crashed off a narrow country lane, collided with a bridge and landed in a stream.

On a remote track in the Yorkshire Dales, Kev and his fellow Alpha recovery ops try to salvage a 50-ton construction machine stranded at the bottom of a steep muddy embankment.

On the busy A1, halfway between Newcastle and Durham, an artic has veered into a 6-foot Armco roadside barrier, propelling it down a 20-metre embankment.

A 40-ton lorry careers off the M1 and plunges down an embankment, becoming embedded in a ditch. Steve needs to work out how to free the truck.

On the M11, a fully loaded truck pulling an extra trailer has been left marooned after a rear axle collapsed while at full speed. Alpha Recovery deal with a motorhome gutted by fire.

In Northumberland, a 32-tonne tipper gets lost in the dark and ends up stuck in a boggy field, while in Leicester recovery op Ziggy gets the keys to a brand-new set of wheels.

In the north of England, Kevin is called to a particularly challenging recovery: a 75-tonne crane that has become stranded in the remote countryside, in the middle of the night.

Vehicles in need of recovery include a Land Rover Discovery dumped in a canal, an artic that has lost traction on a steep gradient, and a truck that's nosedived into a back garden.

Just outside Newcastle, Kev is sent to rescue a wheelie bin delivery truck that has got stuck. With torrential rain forecast, this job is turning into a recovery nightmare.

In episode one, in Hertfordshire, rookie recovery op Euan is tasked with rescuing a ten-tonne rigid. Its rear nearside wheel is stuck deep in muddy water after the narrow country road it was travelling on gave way under its massive weight. The truck is tilting dangerously and could easily topple over onto its side so Euan needs to quickly find a solution before it sinks any further. There's barely any room to operate and to add to the pressure, a long queue of traffic quickly forms. Euan's plan is to lift the rear end of the rigid and hoist it towards the road, but one wrong move could leave this rescue mission dead in the water.

In Northumberland, Alpha recovery op Kev and trainee op Ian go into battle with a massive unit and trailer that's lying slap bang in the middle of a busy roundabout just off the A1. The driver's attempt to turn around went seriously wrong, leaving the tractor unit marooned in muddy ground and the rear trailer wheels wedged across a traffic island. They need to get the road cleared quickly but the tractor unit's not giving up without a fight, and Kev and Ian struggle to gain enough traction to move it off the muddy embankment.

Just outside Northampton, Crouch recovery op Stephen attempts to shift a fully-laden artic. Severe engine failure has left it marooned in a layby on the A43 dual carriageway. With rush hour fast approaching, Stephen needs to put a plan into action pronto but with the half shaft located on the road side of the vehicle, removing it will leave him incredibly exposed to the traffic roaring past just inches away. Any lapse of concentration by a driver could be catastrophic.

A toppled tanker loaded with liquid chicken guts needs rescuing, a refrigerated truck stranded on a busy road is leaking water, and an artic has smashed into two lampposts.

Alpha Recovery send a crew to a challenging, energy-sapping recovery - a fuel tanker has rolled down a steep, muddy hill and landed on its side. A huge digger is needed to flip it over.

After a telegraph pole truck gets stuck down a narrow country lane, Incident Manager Steve requires a very special bit of kit, The Unitrak: a custom built recovery vehicle, which runs on tracks to enable it to access areas other vehicles can't. Being totally unlike anything else to drive, it's a huge test for Steve's maneuvering skills negotiating a slippery and muddy field just to get to the truck. The difficulties don't end there, with winch apparatus having to be operated over a hedge and darkness descending, which means in the heart of rural Herefordshire, this complicated rescue must be executed by the light from the vehicles and torches alone.

Operator Daniel faces his first ever coach rescue job, after a 56 seater gets stranded on the biggest roundabout on the motorway network, on a junction between the M25 and A1(M). With four lanes reduced to two, traffic is relentless, giving Daniel terrifyingly little room in which to work. Right next to an active lane, he must try to remove the coach's half shaft, but with a very thorough paint job having seemingly secured the nuts around it extremely tightly, Daniel has a problem. He must solve it quickly, as there's huge pressure to get the closed lanes open again.

Near Newcastle, veteran operator Kevin comes across a septic tanker wedged in construction aggregate dolomite at the entrance to a building site. With expensive pumpwork on the truck's underbelly, Kevin must exercise supreme caution as this is a rescue which must not be rushed.

In Buckinghamshire, a lorry stuffed with mattresses hits a low bridge and limps to Little Chalfont's station car park where Lantern veteran recovery op Steve declares the curtain-sided trailer structurally unsound, in need of cutting down and flat packing. That can only happen with the mattresses removed - but a replacement lorry on which to put them won't arrive until the following day when incident manager Daniel takes over.

Once the mattresses are off, sparks fly as a disc saw cuts through heavy metal and a crane crushes, rather than lifts the damaged frame. But even neatly stacked, this trailer won't lie down. Its fifth wheel attachment is bent and without it straightened it's going nowhere.

On rural Derbyshire's A615, a Ford Fiesta has crashed into a field. Crouch rookie recovery op Paul soon discovers he can't extract it because between the wrecked car and the road lies an unexpected wall and Paul's tow truck doesn't have a crane. While rush hour traffic builds behind his Slidebed, Paul puts his faith in the battered Fiesta's structural integrity to winch it closer to the wall and wait for help to arrive in the form of a craned truck. When it does, the race is on to get the car out and both recovery trucks out of the way of the increasingly impatient morning commuters.

And on the A66 near Scotch Corner Alpha's Aidan needs to find an off-road four-wheel drive Trakker truck with a blown engine turbo. When he does, it's blocking a slip road in a dangerous spot but despite the risk of traffic speeding by just feet away, Aidan bravely goes under the casualty vehicle to remove its half shaft and finds an elusive air valve so he can take control of its brakes.

It's a different type of recovery for the team at Alpha Recovery as they head out to Northumberland national park for a marine mission. They've been tasked with hauling a three-ton passenger ferry out of the icy waters of a lake so it can be repaired. A straightforward job takes a turn for the worse as the crew battle rocks and wind, and to complicate things further the skipper is struggling to guide his vessel's bow onto a three-inch landing strip on the towing cradle. It's all hands on deck to get the ferry safely off the lake.

On the outskirts of Loughborough rookie Crouch driver Lloyd finds himself driving backwards down a country lane in search of his next job. A massive tanker is stuck in the mud and the only way out is with a winch. After some serious pulling Lloyd frees the stricken driver and his load, but he still has to navigate his exit in reverse. The twisting track proves too much, and the driver gets stuck again. Luckily Lloyd is still on hand to save the day once more.

In the South East Steve has been called to a car park where a botched parking job has left a seven-ton medical supply truck wedged deep in mud. Its axels are sunk in the soft ground and the truck is perilously parked between two trees. With the public milling around Steve must work quickly and carefully to winch the vehicle out of trouble without causing any damage to the bodywork or danger for passers-by.

A 44-tonne gravel lorry careers off the A697, plunging down an embankment, and Gary must pick up the pieces. In Croydon, Stu has a complex recovery: a bin lorry is stuck in deep mud.

A 26-ton tanker gets stuck in a waterlogged verge on the busy A5, fully loaded and leaning to one side. Plus, moving an ageing double decker bus that's been immobile for eight years.

Two coaches which tried passing each other on a narrow snowy lane come to grief, and a bin lorry stuck in mud is in danger of keeling over.

In Northumberland, Alpha Recovery stalwart Kevin's got his hands full winching a tanker out of a muddy ditch on a country road. His load is leaning perilously close to an ancient dry wall. If Kevin gets the angle of his pull wrong, he might collapse the bricks. On top of that he's handling the rescue solo on an open road which means he is both winching, steering, and watching out for passing cars.

On the outskirts of Coventry, the Crouch team have been called to an industrial yard where a skeleton trailer has snapped in half, leaving its seven-tonne shipping container sitting at an awkward and dangerous angle. It's a tough rescue and space is tight, so the team decide the only way to pick up the container and broken trailer is with a huge crane. After rigging up with four heavy chains, Steve controls the lift from his sky-high position in the crane. He's relying on Ben to be his eyes and ears on the ground, looking out for any danger.

In Hertfordshire, incident manager Sean has been called into action attending a job that needs a specialist vehicle. A bin cage truck is mired deep in mud far down a narrow lane. A previous crew tried to reach it with their wrecker, but soon realised a smaller rescue car was needed. Sean arrives in his 4 X4 Land Rover with a pint-sized but powerful winch line. He rigs up the truck to his vehicle's winch and uses a tree as his anchor point, but as he tries to pull the truck to safety it soon becomes clear the truck is pulling his car into the mud.

Three veteran recovery experts struggle with a terribly trashed truck, and a rescue effort gets off to a bad start when the driver realises he is facing the wrong way.

Gary leads a complex mission to rescue a burnt-out low loader and cabin In the Scottish Borders, while Stu battles with a broken-down bus blocking a mini roundabout in Watford.

Alpha Recovery's Operations Manager Gary assembles a crack team to take on a tipping lorry. A 46-tonne artic has veered into a verge on a busy A-road and is going nowhere without some help. Highways have closed two lanes but the third is still open and traffic is streaming by. Gary and the team must carefully coax the lorry out, using two wreckers and four winch lines. But with little room to work there is a danger of this long lorry rolling into the live lane.

In Hertfordshire, another lorry has lost its way. Tight turns convinced the driver to turn back but the tricky conditions caused the wheels to get caught in slippery mud. The massive truck it now wedged in, without a hope of getting out. Lantern Recovery op Stuart must come to the rescue. But getting through claustrophobic country lanes proves a challenge for him and his 32-tonne wrecker. Once on scene Stu swiftly realises that this rescue will not be straightforward.

And on the M11, Heavy Recovery hero Merrie must make it her mission to miss motorway traffic when she is tasked with towing a broken-down truck. The 32-tonner is sitting on the hard shoulder. The brakes are locked on and it is going nowhere fast. To make matters worse it has a heavy weight crane attachment, making moving it a mighty proposition.

A £300,000 supercar has left the road and crashed into a Surrey wood. Incident Managers Daniel and Sean are searching for it and are amazed to finally discover the Ferrari Spider F8 in a copse surrounded by a roundabout. Mysteriously, there is not a path of downed trees after the accident, so the lads must whip out a chainsaw and cut their own route. Once they hook on, it is a test of the boys' winching skills married to the power of their mighty Heavy Wrecker.

In Leicestershire when a major fire rips through a pub, Recovery Op Mark is dispatched to rescue a car stranded next to a wall that the Fire Brigade warn is likely to collapse. It is a dangerous situation for Mark, but to keep himself as far from harm as possible he sends in a state-of-the-art piece of kit. Looking like it is straight out of ‘Thunderbirds' The Eastract is a remote controlled all terrain recovery vehicle, but can it lift the marooned motor clear without being crushed by the wavering wall?

In rural County Durham Recovery Op Aidan must recover a 14-ton Road Sweeper from a farmyard - but there's a problem. The machines' brushes are touching the ground so to save the client a ‘canny penny' Aidan needs to make sure they are protected. Worse still access is tight, and he must figure out how to get his wrecker and the casualty back up the bumpy farm track.

On the M25, Recovery Op Jordan hopes that the artic he must rescue is parked away from dangerous passing traffic. But it is not, and the hair-raising hard shoulder lift and shift is a terrifying test of nerve.

The Alpha team have been called to a burning truck full of bricks on the A69. When they arrive it soon becomes clear the job is going to be far from straightforward as the fire has destroyed the air brake system and melted the rigid at its rear. Operations Manager Gary's only option is to manually unhitch the rear wagon and release all the brakes by hand, but the fire ravaged carcass means that every step of this recovery will be a challenge. To make matters worse, the fuel tank has sustained considerable damage, leaving gallons of diesel dangerously exposed.

In Hertfordshire Lantern Recovery Incident Manager Sean has been pulled away from HQ to rescue a tipper truck that has run aground. He has a challenge ahead as it is far down a private lane resting precariously against a fence, the wheels are sunk deep in mud and there is little space to turn. Sean's only option is to position his wrecker some distance from the casualty and then perform a challenging central pull using soft strops.

On a busy stretch of the M42 outside Birmingham a fully loaded Sprinter Van has limped onto the hard shoulder. The rear differential is broken meaning the van can no longer be driven, luckily Crouch Recovery op Joe has his flatbed truck at the ready. Joe needs to work quickly and carefully because he has busy rush hour traffic thundering past, making this a risky rescue.

The Alpha Recovery team face a huge challenge as a double decker bus has rolled onto its side, and in the Midlands, a car transporter has become bogged down in the grounds of a venue.

A tipper truck sinks into deep mud on an isolated farm track, a car has crashed onto an embankment, and a lorry breaks down off a busy roundabout in rush hour.

In Warwickshire. Dave Crouch comes to the rescue a tipper truck stuck in deep mud on an isolated farm track. And a 26-ton truck breaks down beside the London Eye.

A bin lorry has come off a country lane, its wheels slipping in mud, and a box van trailer with has been uncoupled and left with the front supported solely by its landing legs.

When a driver transporting booze decouples at a lorry park, his trailer's landing legs are swallowed by porous tarmac, pushing Jordan and Merrie's recovery skills to the limit.

There's an emergency in East London when a 25-ton truck hits a railway bridge. And Buzz needs to co-ordinate a multi-agency taskforce when a refrigerated lorry catches fire on the A42.

Jobs include a bulker trailer that has burst into flames, a heavily laden truck that is wedged in soft mud by a busy dual carriageway, and a tractor unit with a broken prop shaft.

In a 600-metre-long tunnel on the M25, self-proclaimed ‘A-Team' Steve and Daniel must combine forces to try to shift a 44-tonne unit and trailer stacked full of breeze blocks. With the hard shoulder barely wide enough to contain the casualty, these are very cramped conditions in which to even attempt a rescue and with many motorists disobeying a lane closure, it is a perilous job. If they are to succeed, the ‘A-Team' will have to separate the unit and trailer, but with a rear lift looking like the only option, they have to find a way of being able to turn around, as the tunnel is too narrow to do so.

At Crouch recovery HQ, veteran Dave is drawing on 50 years of experience to train his grandson, and company newcomer, Kian on a giant crane. But this is no ordinary training day, as Kian must attempt to lift a burnt-out combine harvester onto a lowloader. With obstacles in the yard to be navigated and the harvester imbalanced due to two and a half tonnes of burnt grain still within it, this is a stern test of Kian's burgeoning skills at the controls.

In the North-East, Kevin is called to rescue an 18-tonne truck that has sunk into mud up to its axels on a waterlogged field which has become a quagmire after recent flooding. Kevin has no choice but to get down and dirty to attach his apparatus, but this is a far from straightforward winch out, with mudflaps turning in and the truck's wheels spinning and sliding and struggling to get any sort of traction as Kevin attempts to pull it free.

After storm Babet battered the UK with 70-miles-per-hour winds and heavy rains it left a wake of destruction, including a 22-tonne houseboat washed up on a muddy bank of the River Trent in Nottingham. Now Steve from Crouch and a boat rescue team have the task of trying to winch it back into the water. For this unique job, Steve's brought a unique piece of kit, a specially customised Mooroka. He sets up on the opposite bank, while the water crew attempt to take the 75-foot steel cable across the river to attach it to the boat. But mother nature has other ideas and the high storm waters mean the recovery could quickly head into choppy waters.

In the South it's a completely different story for Merrie from Lantern, she's not battling the force of nature but traffic and other drivers. A tractor unit and trailer with a trashed gearbox has broken down outside a busy site in Southampton, but diversions and road closures make it almost impossible to find, forcing Merrie to drive her 32-foot wrecker through narrow residential streets. After struggling with a tricky prop shaft and finally attaching the artic to her wrecker Merrie now has a navigational nightmare on her hands, driving back on the same narrow roads, this time with more than double the length.

In Newcastle, at Alpha recovery the yard is bustling and so is the call centre, sending out ops to jobs across the North East. Recovery veteran Kev is in the hot seat driving on his way to shift a refrigerated lorry that's broken down on the remote A69. But on arrival it's not the produce or load that leaves him turning his nose up – it's the stench of the remote layby often used by truckers when nature calls.

There's an emergency in Nottinghamshire when the ground gives way beneath a tipper truck fully loaded with stone aggregate. By the time Operations Manager Steve arrives on the scene, the truck is hanging precariously over a six-foot ditch.

The incident has taken place on a notorious stretch of road and Steve has serious concerns for other drivers. Police are called in to organise a road closure while Steve calls for back up to help haul the lorry to safety. When colleagues Lee and Dave arrive with their recovery trucks the race is on to save the stricken tipper. Steve sends Lee's wrecker to the lorry's flank to lift it with a set of straps while Dave heads to the rear to haul the lorry out backwards. But once the lorry is upright Steve changes strategy. The safer option is to pull the lorry out forwards but to accomplish that the lads will need to set up a special winch and use a large tree as an anchor to carry out a complicated reverse pull. Lee holds the truck steady, Dave sets the winch in motion and the challenge is on.

Meanwhile in Middlesbrough, Dave has a task on his hands when the number 63 bus to Redcar gets grounded on a grassy verge. Dave needs to carry out a tricky reversing manoeuvre to winch the bus off the verge. Things get complicated when a swarm of motorists attempt to overtake.

Elsewhere, Daniel needs to get his hands dirty when a delivery truck is damaged after a collision with a car. The steering and brakes are both out of action, and roadside repairs are needed to get the wheels turning. Twenty-five miles away, Daniel's colleague Sean faces a mechanical mystery when a dust cart grinds to a halt in Hertfordshire.

There's an emergency in Surrey when a thirty-six-ton crane gets caught out by a crumbling curb. Having slipped down a muddy bank on its nearside, there is now a real risk of rollover for the huge vehicle. The pressure is on to first stop the crane from getting bogged down any further, and then to figure out how to get the casualty out of the ditch. Lantern recovery op Merrie is leading the rescue operation, helped by wingman, Euan, and they have a mammoth task ahead of them. The crane is listing dangerously, and the challenge is how to level it up so it can be pulled out. Using a combination of two wreckers and a whole lot of elbow grease, Merrie, Euan and the crane crew face an epic battle to get the beached behemoth out of the ditch and back on the road.

Three hundred miles away Alpha recovery op, Mouse, is tasked with the late-night rescue of a tanker that's slipped into a sodden gully in the wilds of Northumberland. Opting to use his winch to haul out the stricken vehicle proves troublesome as the quagmire refuses to release the tanker's rear wheels. It's down to Mouse to find a solution to this recovery puzzle in the darkness of night.

In the Midlands, Crouch recovery op Christina has a challenge on her hands when a damaged family saloon needs to be recovered from the middle of a small country village. Christina wants the rescue to be quick and quiet, but she faces a tricky test keeping the locals happy.

In Northamptonshire, Sean's tasked with recovering a 17-tonne telehandler that's tumbled off a narrow gravel track and ended upside down at the bottom of a ditch. With fellow op Steve's help, he uses a strop around a tree trunk and a second around the telehandler to haul it back upright. Once re-rigged, some careful choreography with his remote control eventually eases it back onto solid ground. But their plan is only half complete. They still need to get it to the end of the dirt track, but soon discover that a major oil leak has left it without steering which works off the hydraulics. Can they quickly find a solution to complete this complex recovery?

Just south of Loughborough, Kevin McCluskey has to rescue a fully-laden delivery truck that has been left dead in the water after the driver and his mate attempted to pass through a flooded section of B-road. Kev's strategy is to attach j-hooks to the truck's axle and haul it free of the floodwater with his winch cable. Kev braves the icy water to attach the j-hooks but with the underside completely submerged, it's a fiddly business. Getting rigged is one thing, but steering the truck onto the back of his low loader without it taking a tumble will be a true test of Kevin's skills.

And on the outskirts of Newcastle, Mouse is called to recover a broken-down bus. Engine failure has left the double decker marooned on a busy T-junction, severely restricting the flow of traffic. A rear end lift and shift is impossible, so Mouse needs to position himself at the front of the bus. But with Newcastle's motorists turning up the heat, he will need to work quickly if he wants an easy end to his week!

In a remote area of Northumberland, a 44-tonne articulated lorry has attempted to drive up a hill, hit sheet ice, slid back down out of control and jackknifed, leaving it wedged across both sides of the road. Alpha's Kevin and Ian have been called to the scene in a specialist six-wheel drive truck to try and cope with the frozen ground and treacherous conditions. As a nerve-wracking nighttime rescue attempt begins, Kevin knows that one false move could see the lorry slide back down the hill again, with its immense weight potentially pulling his own vehicle with it.

Bohdan is on high alert in Hertfordshire for a dicey job on an exit of the A1 Motorway after a lorry gets stranded on the slip road. What he hopes will be a straightforward lift and shift turns into a nightmare, trying to remove the half shaft beside traffic filtering off the motorway. Bohdan must use every trick up his sleeve and all the tools in his arsenal to stand any chance of overcoming a half shaft horror show.

On a country lane near Coventry, recovery op Buzz fears the worst after a 26-tonne lorry gets caught in a ditch having had to swerve to avoid a collision. It's rush hour and the route is a well used cut through, but the only way to get the lorry out will be to shut the road. With a tailback growing, Buzz wants a quick escape for the truck, but it is more stuck than he thought. He must keep adapting to find the best pull set up, but any adjustments eat up the minutes as motorists grow increasingly impatient.

On the busy A42, at rush hour a car transporter goes up in smoke. Fire has quickly spread from the tractor unit to the trailer, dangerously igniting the hybrid vehicles it was carrying. It's critical that the burnt-out cars are removed and tested by the fire crew to check if they are still at risk, because damaged EV lithium-ion batteries can quickly get hot and reignite. Both carriageways are closed to keep the public safe as Steve Kelly from Crouch coordinates the mammoth clear up with a five-person team. The cars need to be craned carefully off the unstable wreckage, tested by the fire crew, and if they are too hot, they need to be cooled off in the latest bit of recovery kit - the EV cool tub.

In the south, teamwork also makes the dream work for Lantern when Daniel and Sean find themselves on a job off the beaten track. An A-class Mercedes missed the turning on a roundabout and took a nosedive down a steep bank colliding into woods. The ‘Lantern Horticultural team' get busy with their chainsaws and axes to clear a pathway before they can winch out the casualty. But first, they need to get a handle on their gardening tools.

Called out from home on the night shift, Dave from Alpha is sent to a job in the dark. A single decker bus has somehow managed to lodge itself in the mud on a mini roundabout outside a shopping centre in Middlesborough. What should be a ‘mini' problem becomes a big headache as Dave struggles to find something strong enough to attach his chains to. He needs his wits about him to extract the bus as it's firmly stuck between a curb, a deep hole, and a turning.

In Northumberland bad weather causes an emergency on the A1 involving an 18-ton truck. Plus, a tricky recovery on the 17th fairway of a golf course when a beer truck grinds to a halt.

In the north east of England, Alpha recovery ops Kevin and Ian battle the snow and ice to rescue a stricken fuel tanker that's slipped off a frozen track while making a delivery. With nowhere to turn and limited space they must perform a tricky reverse winch pull using hundreds of metres of line. They're relying on a tree as an anchor point and the power of their 4x4 road rescuer. It's a risky manoeuvre, if they get it wrong the cable could snap causing carnage.

On the outskirts of Loughborough, trucking legend Dave Crouch is back on the road, riding to the rescue of a sweeper truck that's broken down. A spring on its rear axel broke and it skidded to a halt. The wheels are mired in the muddy verge, and it needs a winch out and a tow to the garage. To get it back on track Dave's relying on his trusty Scammell to do the heavy lifting.

In north London, Lantern op Steve is dealing with a sticky situation. A road paver is stuck in tarmac and the only way out is with the heavy weight help of Steve's wrecker. It's far from straightforward as the road is only half built, meaning he can't park his hauler where he needs it. He manages to find a stable spot and gambles on a single winch line pull to get it out of trouble, but it soon becomes clear that this is no simple winch out. Quick thinking Steve has to change tack using a snatch block to double his pulling power, but will it be enough?

Lantern recovery op Stuart has been tasked with rescuing a 26-tonne sewage tanker, fully loaded with waste material, that has got its nearside wheels wedged in a drainage ditch down a narrow muddy track. On top of having barely any room to manoeuvre, the tanker's tilting dangerously to one side, so Stuart must try and get the monster back onto solid ground without it toppling over.

In the Midlands, Crouch op Steve must try and rescue a mammoth 44-tonne artic that's got trapped in a water-filled ditch after the driver attempted to pass through flood water. Helped by fellow recovery op Dan, they attempt to haul it out using the winch. But no sooner have they got to work, than another truck attempting to avoid the flood water gets itself into trouble a few feet up the road. Could another recovery be on the cards before the boys can clock off for the day?

In the North East, Alpha op Aidan has been given the job of recovering a chunky tractor unit and trailer with handbrake problems, that's stuck at a busy service station. But with a huge truck to its side and another in front, Aidan faces the unenviable task of trying to rescue the casualty from an incredibly tight spot.

And south of Newcastle, a truck fully loaded with heavy industrial machinery has got itself jammed in forward gear. The casualty is stranded on a busy carriageway and it's up to Alpha op Kev to recover it. But when he discovers its prop shaft is the full length of the wagon and weighs more than him, Kev knows this won't be a simple lift and shift.

The team endure an epic clean-up after a lorry carrying tonnes of curry sauce jars collides with a huge artic. Gary battles a bin wagon on a dirt track. Euan has a tug of war with a tanker.

Kev and Gary face a herculean task extracting a fully loaded 44-tonne artic from a forest. Daniel and Steve are in the dark trying to lift a lorry out of a ditch, and recovery op Bohdan finds himself under a bus in central London.

When Storm Isha hits Northumberland Mouse attempts a dangerous rescue in high winds. Mick steps in to save a dustcart from toppling on its side, Steve must haul a fully loaded tanker out of the mud and Merrie tackles a breakdown in the high street.

In the North East a truck has taken a tumble into a ditch in the dead of night. In Leicestershire Snods has got his hands full craning a car out of a field. And, on a busy A road in London Euan has to get a broken down truck out of a live lane.

Mouse is tasked with recovering a delivery truck that's been blown onto its side. Dan is attempting to remove the remains of a burnt-out tar truck. And Dave is tasked with rescuing a truck that's come a cropper on a country lane.

Wild weather wreaks havoc as Gary and Kevin lift a trailer in the Pennines and Bohdan battles broken brakes on a lorry in a live lane. 

Ian faces danger working metres from a live lane to rescue a truck in trouble. Merrie must extract an arctic sinking in the sand without getting beached herself.

A rolled over tipper truck on a busy road has the Crouch crew scrambling. A vandalised motorhome with broken steering needs saving from a driveway.

Recovery ops are dispatched to a toppled trailer and tractor unit on the busy A1 and in Walsall, Snods deals with a car is on the brink of tumbling into a canal lock.

The heat is on for Dean and Daniel after a garage fire leaves 11 vehicles in need of removal. Most of the vehicles are complete write-offs so the duo must get these burnouts out.

Near the Scottish border, a massive articulated truck has tumbled down a steep slope and toppled on to its side and in the Midlands a lorry has caught fire on the busy A1.

In the Scottish borders, Alpha recovery ops Gary, Simon and Mouse have been called in to recover a lorry that's been blown off the road and tipped onto its side. With slippery embankments and muddy terrain, the recovery is fraught with challenges. In Buckinghamshire, lantern op Sean is tasked with rescuing a 12-ton transporter loaded with a broken-down BMW that's stuck in a muddy ditch.

Pat faces a tough challenge after a fully loaded 40-ton lorry crashes, ploughing into a hedge and landing on its side. Michael's called to recover a tanker full of animal waste.

Sean and Daniel attempt a risky recovery after a lorry loaded with rotten potatoes has rolled, blocking a busy London route. In Scotland, a van has plunged into Loch Eck.

On a busy A-road, the Alpha team rescues a lorry stuck in deep mud after it veers off-road. On the M25, Lantern Recovery responds when a slide-bed loses its wheels.

Dan tackles a cherry picker stuck in a boggy bridleway. In Worcestershire, Kieran faces a challenging uphill battle to recover a stranded farm vehicle.

Daniel and Dean strip a burnt-out horse box for recovery, but one wrong move could bring the whole thing crashing down. Mouse races to clear a lorry without a back wheel on the A66.

Crews face a burnt-out horse box, a stranded lorry on the A66, and a risky orange-laden trailer lift in the Midlands - all demanding precision, teamwork, and nerves of steel.