They’ve gone and done it again. The Planet Earth team have gone and made the finest thing I’ve seen on the box since the last outing, and the next episode will no doubt surpass last night’s incredible showing.

If, for some inexplicable reason, you have missed this series of programmes, let me tell you this. Planet Earth is not just the most handsome looking nature programme ever made, but it’s also the most daring and interesting.

Imagine if Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese teamed up to make the most sumptuous show ever, and cast only the finest animal actors. Now you’re getting close. The camera men who work on Planet Earth go far beyond the realm of normal nature shooters. As David Attenborough’s dulcet tones told foreboding tales of melting polar ice caps, the viewer was treated to a incredible shot of a Polar Bear swimming through brittle ice in his quest for food. As ever, the BBC nature didn’t pull any punches. In a truly breath taking sequence, we saw a Polar Bear desperately attacking a herd of Walrus in an attempt to avoid starvation. It didn’t work. The Walrus team proved too strong, and injured the Polar Bear until it could no longer walk. It solemnly lay down and waited to die a slow death. Heart wrenching, and perfectly shot.

You don’t need me to tell you that Attenborough doesn’t just focus on sad tales of starvation. Alongside the harrowing tales of hardship, the team bring the ‘aaaaaw’ factor. In this case, Arctic Fox cubs. Bouncing around the snow caps, the cubs made very pretty TV, but, instead of going for the saccharine votes, it swiftly cut to a shot of a fox tearing something to pieces with those powerful jaws of theirs. The chase sequence which saw a fantastical looking creature – a Musk Ox – charging after a Fox was again, jaw dropping.

However, by far the most impressive creatures featured were the Emperor Penguins. The incredible hardships suffered by these incredible animals was sometimes too much to believe. When you discover (again, through Attenborough’s perfect narration) that Emperor Penguin fathers starve for 4 months, huddled in huge groups during blizzards that are minus sixty, saving one meal for the as-yet-unborn chick, you begin to appreciate an animal that you would normally dismiss as something that walks funny and can be found on a biscuit wrapper.

If you missed this, to watch Paul Weller on the other side, then you should be thrown naked into an arctic tundra for your sins. This was, unpredictably, the finest thing on TV, and the best thing I’ve seen for months. Genius.