The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
THE HIDDEN WILD OF THE MOTORWAY
Tuesday, BBC Four, 9pm
Britain’s busiest road, the M25, is a vast loop of soulless concrete. But look closer and you’ll find the natural world has adapted to coexist around it. Inspired by JG Ballard and Joseph Conrad, naturalist Helen Macdonald strolls around the M25’s perimeter in this enlightening documentary. She discovers pretty woodlands and waterways against a background roar of traffic; some songbirds have had to alter the pitch of their calls just to be heard. She also reveals how fungi studies could help solve the problem of traffic congestion. An enthusiastic, softlyspoken scholar finding hidden wonders in mundane areas we take for granted, this is a quintessential BBC Four joint. We’ll miss it when it’s gone.
THE SECRET MEDITERRANEAN WITH TREVOR McDONALD
Tuesday, STV, 9pm
You could argue that sunny foreign TV travelogues are the last thing we need at the moment. They’re a cruel reminder of an increasingly distant time when, finances permitting, we could hop on a plane and relax our blues away on holiday. On the other hand, the sight of genial Sir Trev in sunglasses and an open-necked shirt might provide a fleeting distraction from the misery of life as we currently know it. Which sounds fine in theory, but according to the synopsis – preview copies weren’t available – episode one involves Trev boarding a super-yacht once owned by Aristotle Onassis and later witnessing a bout of camel wrestling. That does not sound like fun to me. Tastes may vary.
HUEY MORGAN’S LATIN AMERICAN ADVENTURE
Friday, BBC Four, 9.30pm
In this vibrant new series, the BBC 6 Music DJ drops his usual tiresome wise-guy act to engage sincerely with the turbulent history of Latin American popular music. His odyssey begins in Brazil, where ecstatic samba rhythms continue to represent the defiant voice of oppressed working-class people (Brazil is governed by “the Trump of the Tropics”). This is protest music in its purest form; grooving community action. He also covers the bossa nova boom and examines the anti-capitalist politics of the tropicalia movement via interviews with the great Gilberto Gil and, from the magnificently far-out Os Mutantes and Arnaldo Baptista. These musicians challenged the status quo via some the greatest music ever made.