HELICOPTER heroes from the York area are set to star in a prime-time TV documentary - presented by Top Gear celebrity Richard Hammond.

The BBC series will start next month and will feature footage from 60 different lifesaving missions by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Film crews have spent the summer with the county's paramedics - and the programme, called Helicopter Heroes, will give viewers a real-life insight into the work of the air ambulance.

It will be presented by Hammond, who wanted to find a way of thanking the Yorkshire team who saved his life after his 300mph car crash at Elvington Airfield, near York, in September 2006.

In his opening words to viewers, he will say: "When you're critically ill or badly injured, speed can save your life.

"This is the Yorkshire Air Ambulance - and last year it probably saved my life, by airlifting me from a wrecked jet-car to intensive care in just 15 minutes.

"I'm only one of a thousand grateful patients who are alive today thanks to its crew."

Chief executive of Yorkshire Air Ambulance Martin Eede said he was extremely excited that people across the whole country would be seeing his paramedics in action. He said: "This is the first time the efforts of the Yorkshire people, who so freely give their time and money in support of the air ambulance, have been shown.

"All the paramedics were fitted with chest cameras and we also had four cameras on board the helicopter.

"But we wanted to give a true picture, it is not just about the paramedics who dash around saving lives - it is also about the thousands and thousands of people in Yorkshire who help make the service happen."

Many of the people who have supported fundraising events for the air ambulance will be featured on the programme - including everybody who attended Marra's Shed Warming, in Egton Bridge, and the Heroes Of Flight Ball, at York's National Railway Museum.

But filming hasn't gone without its hitches - and footage includes scenes of one hapless paramedic sprawling to the ground as he ran from the helicopter to treat a patient in the Yorkshire Dales.

Mr Eede said: "That was definitely a comedy moment.

"The helicopter had to land the other side of a stone wall to the patient, and as the paramedic ran across, he tripped over and went smashing into the wall.

"The camera on his chest was completely broken."

The documentary will initially be shown over ten episodes on BBC1, starting on September 3, at 9.15am, and will be repeated later in the year as a six-part series on prime-time TV.