Acorn Antiques star Celia Imrie has launched a £1m public appeal for funds to create a new lifeboat station in Cowes.

Well-known for her work on films like Nanny McPhee and Victoria Wood’s TV series Dinnerladies, Imrie is the patron of the appeal, which will lead to a greatly improved lifeboat station serving the Solent.

Celia was escorted by lifeboat from the current station in Shepards Wharf marina to the new building, the old Custom House.

“The current station is a changing room, an office, a classroom, so they need this new facility,” she said. “All the crew are total volunteers, and it is absolutely wonderful to think they are going to have a new station nearer the Solent. Those vital four minutes when they have to answer a call immediately are going to make them even faster to launch.

“To get people to do things and give up their time for nothing, and risk their own lives, is wonderful and I am so proud to be involved with the crew today. I am so in admiration and am very proud to be the patron of this appeal.”

The RNLI aims refurbish the old Custom House building, near the mouth of the River Medina, to create a new, improved lifeboat station. This location will reduce the lifeboat launching time by 4 minutes, allowing the crew to reach casualties more quickly, which in turn could prove crucial in saving lives out at sea.