Angie Dymott is leaving her job as a paramedic in Cardiff, South Wales, to join the Bomberos of Guatemala City, capital of Guatemala and one of the most murderous places on earth. For two weeks, she will live and work with the Bomberos, combined paramedics and firemen, as they race to the scenes of gangland killings and drive-by shootings, trying to save lives and to stay alive. She will swap her roomy, high-tech, state-of-the-art ambulance for a cramped minibus. As the drug barons fight it out and innocents are caught in the crossfire, Angie will see more bloodshed and killings in a few days than in all her years on the job in Wales. Decades of civil war and increasing drug-related violence have left this Central American country close to chaos. The murder rate is bucking the global, downward, trend, and rising every year. Recently a leading international monitoring organisation described Guatemala as 'a paradise for criminals.' As she contemplates her departure, Angie is scared, not just of the violence but of failing her new colleagues. She knows she's a competent paramedic in the UK, but in Guatemala? Will she cope? Will she be a useful member of the team or merely a hindrance?
In the second programme in the series where British workers accept the challenge to do their jobs in some of the toughest conditions in the world, London bus driver Josh West heads to Manila, the capital of the Philippines and the most densely populated city on Earth. Josh will be driving a Jeepney, a colourfully decorated, adapted jeep which has no power steering, dodgy lights and an uncomfortable seat. His host is Rogelio Castro and together they brave the chaos of the streets. It's a hair-raising and often hilarious ride, but Josh also learns about the incredible over-crowding and devastating poverty of Manila. He forms a strong bond with Rogelio and is moved by the daily struggle of an ordinary Filipino working to feed his family. It's an emotional roller coaster and Josh returns a changed man, aware that all the separates his life from Rogelio's is the country he happened to be born in.
In the third programme in the series where British workers accept the challenge to do their jobs in some of the toughest conditions in the world, midwife Suzanne Saunders-Blundell abandons the high tech maternity unit at Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield to work in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia in West Africa. This is the third poorest country on earth, where one in twelve women dies in childbirth. Suzanne, a fan of natural child birth back in Britain, soon learns that there is little time for such luxuries at the Redemption Hospital. On her first day she has to deal with a traumatic still birth and during her stay a young woman she has helped to care for dies in front of her. Yet by the end of her stay Suzanne is amazed and inspired by the strength of the Liberian midwives she lives and works with, who in turn are keen to learn from her.
London binman Wilbur Ramirez is heading to Jakarta, the vast mega city that is the capital of Indonesia. For ten days Wilbur works with Imam, one of the army of semi-destitute binmen who collect rubbish in one of the biggest and fastest growing cities in the world. From the health and safety conscious world of British waste management, Wilbur enters a life of squalor and poverty - staying next to a fly-ridden dump and joining Imam's back breaking daily round as he collects the rubbish of Jakarta's wealthy. It's a moving journey as Wilbur discovers the insecurity and danger that dominates Imam's life, and his powerlessness to change his circumstances.
Cornish fisherman Andy Giles gives up his state of the art trawler to travel to the coast of Sierra Leone, where the fishing is done from a dugout canoe. Living in a small community of mud huts, Andy discovers a very different way of life where a bad day's fishing means a hungry family. Even this precarious lifestyle is now under threat from foreign trawlers that fish illegally in the villagers' waters, taking their fish, destroying their nets and sometimes even sinking their canoes, with tragic consequences. Through the international language of the fisherman, Andy develops a lasting friendship with his hosts, in a film which highlights the plight of subsistence fishermen around the world
Train driver Simon Davies usually drives the high speed Pendolino between London and Manchester, but now he faces a very different challenge as he travels to Peru and one of the highest and steepest railway lines on earth. Mining is the life blood of Peru and every day trains carry thousands of tons of metal ores down from huge mines in the high Andes. Coached by some of the toughest train drivers in the world, Simon has just days to learn how to handle a massive train down the spectacular and terrifying slopes, risking derailment and death on train lines at an altitude higher than Mont Blanc. He also discovers a community in crisis, where pollution from mining is poisoning the population.
Three Britons perform their regular jobs in tough locations, beginning with Staffordshire mine rescue worker Craig Notman working with unofficial gold miners in Mongolia.
Colin Window, a London bridge officer, goes to Bangladesh to work on the Buriganga river, one of the world's busiest waterways.
Emergency nurse Maria Connolly leaves the A&E department of the Royal Preston Hospital to work in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - the centre of a violent drug war.
A London cabbie tests his skills on some of the most chaotic streets in the world in Mumbai India. His host is Pradeep Sharma, who lives with his extended family in a tiny two bedroom house and earns less than ten pounds a day for his long and stressful shift. As Mason takes his life in his hands to learn the Knowledge Mumbai style, he also begins to understand the plight of the millions of migrant workers who flood into India's cities looking for work. They often encounter poverty, discrimination and hostility. Inspired by their sheer determination, Mason's final challenge is to go solo in an Indian taxi, picking up passengers, finding his way around and earning his crust in the madness of the Mumbai rush hour. It's like 'Mad Max meets the Kumars' as Mason puts it.
Dairy farmer Richard Gibson is swapping the damp surroundings of Devon to live and work with Samburu tribesmen, who herd their cattle in the parched and desolate mountains of northern Kenya. British farmers have suffered from low milk prices and squeezed margins but it is nothing compared to the struggles of Richard's host, village elder Lemerigichen. In recent years drought has decimated the herds in this region, forcing many Samburu off their land and into the poverty of local towns. Richard launches himself into an alien lifestyle - sleeping rough in the wilderness, drinking cow's blood and digging and digging to find water. The two men form a touching bond through the love of their animals and the basic drive to support their families, whilst Richard gains an insight into what it is like to tend a herd when surrounded by lions, leopards and hyenas.
Firefighter Neil Fairhall is leaving his fire station in Hayward's Heath and heading to the Amazon to fight some of the biggest forest fires in the world. While a lot of a British firefighters' time is spent attending small fires and false alarms, during the dry season in Mato Grosso state, the Jatoba Fire Brigade, part of Alianca da Terra, can work for four days at a time trying to save the forest from fire. As Neil trains and works with fire chief Edimar Dos Santos Abreu and his crew, he learns that the blazes are often started deliberately in order to clear the forest for illegal agriculture and that this now represents the single biggest threat to the Amazon. It is tough and brutal work as a team of just five men work across an area the size of England in a seemingly hopeless battle. But now they are enlisting the help of the local indigenous people whose way of life is threatened by the encroaching fires and Neil flies to the heart of the jungle to help train local warriors in firefighting techniques.
London bus driver Josh returns to the chaotic streets of Manila in the Phillipines.
Andy Giles returns to the fishing community in Sierra Leone whose survival was threatened.
Wilbur Ramirez revisits Jakarta to see if he can improve the lives of the city's binmen.
