Frozen Planet II

BBC1, 8pm

The BBC may have its shortcomings, but there’s still one thing it does with worldbeating excellence: providing matchless insight into the animal kingdom through the work of Sir David Attenborough and the brilliant Natural History Unit.

Their latest series is as terrific as you would expect, on the evidence of the opening week’s episode, in which we’re taken around the globe with an itinerary that goes far beyond the original series of Frozen Planet in 2011. Then we were confined to the Arctic and Antarctic; now the subject matter has been extended to take in all those parts of the world that lie frozen for all or much of the year.

Among many breathtaking sequences are a grizzly bear picking off one musk ox calf after another – the most disturbing of several unforgettable moments – plus cute crabeater seals (right). ★★★★★