Loading...
Super-sized transport jobs require even bigger trucks to perform them. Lifting the lid on the heavy recovery business, featuring industrial strength trucks capable of towing and lifting the biggest and heaviest machines on the nation's roads.
2018
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.
A double-deck HGV rolls over on the A6, Crouch Recovery are sent in to save the day. Elsewhere, recovery operative Rob delivers a wrecked cab to a salvage yard
Heavy-recovery operator Marcus and his colleague Trigger have their work cut out when an HGV collides with another vehicle on one of Britain's busiest motorways
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.
Adam dispatches a team of recovery operators when a trailer sheds a 16-ton piece of metal machinery at a junction for East Midlands Airport, causing a collision into a passing van.
Marta and Fluff are sent to recover a massive digger that plunged into the River Thames after the bank it was sitting on gave way. However, moving 20 tons of dead weight is no easy task. Meanwhile, Rory is dispatched to rescue a Sprinter that is blocking a bus lane, and Jim has to work fast to get a stranded HGV driver to safety.
A waste truck is involved in a motorway pile-up, and a broken down vehicle towing a cutting-edge caravan presents a problem. Fluff has to transport one of the heaviest loads his vehicle is able to carry, and Marta is called out to a truck that has become stranded in a quarry.
A lorry loaded with tarmac breaks down. A burnt-out van abandoned on an isolated towpath presents a challenge for Steve and Marta, but a rescue lorry soon comes to their assistance.
2020
Following men and women working in the heavy recovery business, as they tackle jack-knifed lorries, crashed HGVs and roadside breakdowns
Tez and his crew deal with a 20-tonne milk tanker sinking in a muddy field in Leicestershire, while Merrie gets a rubbish job trying to rescue a broken down bin lorry on the M42.
The team is called out to upright an artic that has rolled over on the A1. On arrival, they discover the container is loaded with a 23-tonne transformer
Following men and women working in the heavy recovery business, as they tackle jack-knifed lorries, crashed HGVs and roadside breakdowns.
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.
2019
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.
Incident manager Steve is called to the scene of an overturned gas tanker that, while Sean is asked to pick up an abandoned scaffolding lorry
Recovery operation Jim and heavy vehicle mechanic Jack are called out to help a loaded HGV with a puncture, and a fuel tanker is stranded in an SOS bay on the M25
A road in Leicester is blocked by a 26-tonne digger, while rescue specialists Richard and Lee have the unusual job of retrieving a load of straw from a broken down trailer
A 40-tonne lorry overturns and spills its load, forcing a major road to close. Meanwhile, heavy recruit specialist is called to recover two crashed cars from the side of the M69
Father-and-son duo Dave and Adam try to recover a lorry transporting a 100-tonne train engine, while rookie driver Warren has to move a HGV on the busy M1
The Crouch team deals with some monster jobs, while Simon and his crew have to grapple with a juggernaut that has skidded off the M62 and down a steep bank
A luxury coach breaks down on a busy motor way slip road, and recovery operative Jon is on hand to try and tow the vehicle amid heavy traffic and misty conditions
A huge 32-tonne tipper truck has slid down a dirt embankment and is lying on its side, and a lorry stuck in reverse severely blocking traffic in Leicester city centre
Crane operator Nick is called out to a particularly unusual job on a recycling plant. Meanwhile, recovery operative Jim faces a hazardous callout
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 his team attempt to recover a car that has crashed into a river, while 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 road.
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.
2021
Steve rescues a burning transporter loaded with cars.
2023
Following the men and women of the heavy recovery business. In Hertfordshire, rookie op Euan is tasked with rescuing a ten-tonne rigid - one wrong move could end his rescue mission.
2024
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.
2021
A 44-tonne truck carrying food catches fire and the cargo keeps reigniting.
2022
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.
Steve tackles a 44-ton lorry loaded with toilet roll that has flipped over and blocked the A50, while Martin rescues an articulated lorry axle deep in mud and sinking fast.
Steve comes to the rescue when a trailer rolls over on a busy roundabout on the A46, scattering hay bales everywhere. In south London, recovery op Merrie faces a boggy recovery nightmare.
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.
A toppled tanker with liquid chicken guts needs rescuing, a refrigerated truck stranded on a busy road is leaking water everywhere, and an arctic 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.
In Buckinghamshire, recovery op Steve must deal with a mattress stuffed lorry which has hit a low bridge. Rookie Paul tries to extract a wrecked car in rural Derbyshire.
A three tonne passenger ferry is hauled out of the icy waters of a lake so it can be repaired, and there are two cases of massive vehicles stuck in mud.
Recovery op Mark tackles a Vauxhall left dangling over the edge of a canal lock 8n wet weather, and Daniel helps with a recovery operation after a smash on the M25.
A 44-ton gravel lorry careers off the A69, 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 tonne tanker gets stuck in a waterlogged verge on the busy A5, fully loaded and leaning to one side. Plus, moving an aging 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.
Gary leads a team from Alpha rescuing a burnt-out low loader and portacabin. Stu battles with a broken-down bus which is blocking a mini roundabout during the afternoon school run. And Joe retrieves a car which has careered off the A6.
While Stu struggles with a broken-down bus blocking a mini roundabout in Watford, Gary leads a complex mission to rescue a burnt-out low loader and cabin in the Scottish Borders.
A 46-tonne artic has veered into a verge on a busy A-road and is going nowhere without some help. And a lorry gets caught in slippery mud.
On the M25 near Enfield two lorries, two cars and a Transit have piled into each other blocking three of four lanes. In a ten-mile tailback the Lantern team must recover the two artics.
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 gets 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, it’s wheels slipping in mud, and a box van trailer which 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.
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, Steve and Daniel must combine forces to try to shift a 44-ton unit and trailer stacked full of breeze blocks.
Rescue teams are required for a 22-tonne houseboat washed up on a muddy bank of the River Trent by storm babet, and a tractor unit and trailer with a trashed gearbox.
There’s an emergency in Nottinghamshire when the ground gives way beneath a tipper truck fully loaded with stone aggregate. In Middlesborough, a bus gets grounded on a grassy verge.
A 45-tonne crane gets caught out by a crumbling curb, Mouse performs a late-night recovery of a tanker that’s slipped into a sodden gully and a damaged family saloon needs rescuing.
Sean is tasked with recovering a 17-tonne telehandler that’s tumbled off a track, landing upside down in a ditch, while Mouse tries to recover a broken-down bus.
A 44-tonne articulated lorry has attempted to drive up a hill, hit sleet ice, slid back down out of control and jackknifed, leaving it wedged across both sides of the road.
Rescue teams deal with a car transporter that goes up in smoke during rush hour, a car that took a nosedive down a steep bank, and a single decker bus stuck in mud on a mini roundabout.
In Northumberland, bad weather causes an emergency in the A1 involving an 18-tonne 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.
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.
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. Recovery op Bodhan finds himself under a bus in central London.
When Storm Isha hits Northumberland, Mouse attempts a dangerous rescue in high winds; Mick saves a dustcart from toppling over and Steve hauls a fully loaded tanker out of the mud.
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.
Mouse is tasked with recovering a delivery vehicle that’s blown onto its side and Dan is attempting to remove the remains of a burnt-out tar truck.
Wild weather wrecks havoc as Gary and Kevin lift a trailer in the Pennines.
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.
A trailer carrying gym weights rolls over a roundabout and needs heavy recovery vehicles.
A lorry breaks down on a busy section of the M25 with a major oil leak and a fire risk.
A stranded lorry must be removed from a busy street before rush hour begins.
A frozen food truck crashes into a ditch, but the driver and the keys are missing.
A vehicle stuck on the A10 means a recovery amidst busy and dangerous traffic.
A sinkhole traps a tanker; a car crashes into a ditch; a lorry breaks down.
A coach that has crashed into a hedgerow requires some creative thinking to get rescued.
A coach that has driven off the road into a hedgerow needs to be rescued before rush hour.
Two trucks need rescuing when one got stuck trying to pull out the other.
A slide bed loses two wheels and a lorry gets stuck in the mud.
A 44-tonne artic verges off a country lane and gets tuck in the mud.
A lorry rolls over on the edge of a roundabout and a truck with blown suspension.
A serious blaze leaves an eight-wheel sewage tanker stricken in a layby on the busy A1 motorway just north of Grantham in Lincolnshire.
Lantern recovery op Steve is on his way to a risky roadside rescue. A 38-tonne mail lorry has taken doorstep delivery to another level by crashing on a London street.
A frost in Warwickshire makes a country lane as slippery as an ice rink, causing a road sweeper to slide into a ditch. The weather also causes problems for recovery op Stephen.
An 18-wheel trailer carrying two modular buildings catches fire in the early morning, closing three lanes just before rush hour, and an 18-tonne lorry smashes into a tree.
Lantern recovery op Merrie faces a dangerous challenge when a 20-tonne drinks lorry gets grounded on a boggy verge, and then becomes entangled in the overhanging branches of a tree.
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.
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.
A tipped-over shipment of A4 paper on the A1 ends up being a tough task to take on. After hitting a bridge, a trailer's damage is too much to be towed without some sort of repair. Dud directions leave Mary searching for her destination.
A crew trying to take care of a burned-out trailer struggles due to its missing wheels. A broken-down bus blocks a bus stop, with pedestrians complicating recovery efforts. Troy gets lost on a country road searching for a breakdown.
Sean faces the mother of all recoveries - a truck loaded with chemicals has plunged down a steep embankment into woodland. Troy tackles a lorry breakdown causing a big tailback at the height of rush hour.
A sinkhole in Wokingham swallows up a 15-tonne water tanker, leaving rescue crews worried about what might lurk within the depths.
The men and women working in the heavy recovery business deal with jack-knifed lorries, crashed heavy goods vehicles and roadside breakdowns.
The men and women working in the heavy recovery business deal with jack-knifed lorries, crashed heavy goods vehicles and roadside breakdowns.
On the Moors, a 50 ton construction machine has and landed in a stream. The team at Alpha face a dangerous two-day rescue. On The M1, Lantern's Bohdan rescues a stranded 44-ton artic and Stuart is called to the A34 to rescue a broken-down bus.
A 50-ton construction machine is stranded by a severely-damaged Victorian bridge.
On the busy A1, halfway between Newcastle and Durham, an articulated lorry has fallen down a 20-metre embankment. The Alpha Recovery crew must work out how to retrieve the truck.
Shaun has to think outside the box as a trapped telehandler puts the team under serious pressure, A stranded bus may of blown Aiden's chances of an easy recovery and a sunken car causes trouble.
On the M25 near Enfield, two lorries, two cars and a van have piled into each other, blocking three lanes, so the Lantern team must recover the two artics.
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 loaded truck pulling an extra trailer has been left marooned after the rear axle on the trailer collapsed while at full speed, causing two of the wheels to break.
In Northumberland, a 32-tonne tipper gets lost in the dark and ends up stuck in a boggy field, while in Leicester recovery op Zibby 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-ton 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.
Just outside Newcastle, Kev is sent to rescue a wheelie bin delivery truck that is stuck.
2025
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.
Gary, Simon and Mouse recover a lorry that’s been blown off the road and tipped onto its side. Sean tackles a 12-tonne transporter loaded with a broken-down BMW that’s stuck in a ditch.
Pat faces a tough challenge after a fully loaded 40 tonne 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 rescue a lorry stuck in deep mud after it veers off-road, while on the M25, Lantern Recovery responds when a slide-bed loses its wheels.
Dan tackles a cherry picker in a boggy bridleway. In Worcestershire, Kieran faces a challenging uphill battle to recover a stranded farm vehicle.Will they find a way out?
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 in the A66, and a risky orange-laden trailer lift in the Midlands - all demanding precision, teamwork, and nerves of steel.
Kieran O'Brien
