A docudrama featuring reconstructions of real-life rescues? If the theme tune alone doesn't prove this series features nightmarish scenarios then the material in a single episode certainly will.
- The combination of the theme tune, Michael Buerk warning the audience of what was to come and the featured material in each episode.
- Each episode would usually end with a preview of the following episode, followed by the end credits which were accompanied by a brief-review of the episode the audience had just seen, with an eerie dark blue shadow effect over the footage.
- As well as the show's infamous theme tune, the logo was redesigned in 1999 to look like distorted (possibly melting) numbers illuminated by flames on an otherwise black background.
- The original logo started off as numbers on an ambulance roof but the variants used until 1998 drove home the serious nature of the series.
- The opening sequence, in its various forms, usually featured examples of the dangerous situations featured in the series and the rescue crews running towards them.
- The series was arguably at its most nightmarish when children had to be rescued, even Michael Buerk emphasized this.
- The reconstructions were a combination of Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker but for the most part, ended up as Heartwarming.
- The occasional use of foreboding Background Music during the reconstructions.
- When Michael Buerk reminded the audience what was still to come, a thunderclap-like sound effect (sometimes complete with an accompanying flash) would be played, followed by a foreboding chord and the signature three-notes.
