A lot of people like Bruce Parry and I’d no idea why. Not because of some stupid critic-esque grudge of mine, but rather, I’d never bothered tuning into his shows because they looked a bit like a Bear Grylls thing. Basically, I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve seen a lot of blokes heading off to some remote place and having a hard time of it and surely, this Bruce fella wasn’t going to add anything else… was he? Then I realised that he might actually be a nice chap and, seeing as there was nothing much on, I decided to tune in to Amazon with Bruce Parry (BBC Two, Monday, 15 September
9pm).

From what I can gather, Bruce likes meeting tribes as opposed to proving to us all that he can survive in various inhospitable places. When I realised this last night, I immediately went soft on him. Fact is, I was wrong to think he was one of these people who enjoyed jumping into volcanoes just to eat some singed bracken from a goat’s gut. No, Bruce is more interested in meeting the kinds of humans we’ll never stumble across.

So in the Andes of Peru, Bruce met some really, really cool people. These people were a wonderful bunch called the Quechua family. They had llamas and alpacas instead of our rather boring looking chickens and sheep. Of course, I only think they’re more interesting because we don’t have them over here (that said, my home town of Horwich does indeed, have a llama farmer).

Bruce, who seems to have an boundless enthusiasm for absolutely everything, leaps straight in, narrowly avoids a kick in the head from an agitated llama, to help the tribespeople give them a haircut. He travels through cocaine, pollution and more, all of which he tackles with great TV candour. It’s clear that this man is a good person to have on the box.

However, for all Bruce’s brilliance, he was completely upstaged last night by the kid from the Quechua family. We saw this little scamp dancing and grinding to the sounds of the transistor radio and generally being a cheeky little bugger with more charm than a Leslie Philips producing factory. It was clear that Parry took a huge shine to him (as did absolutely everybody who tuned in last night).

All in all, I’m glad I stopped being an idiot concerning Bruce Parry. He’s clearly a really good bloke. It’s nice to have a good bloke on telly. It’s even nicer to meet all these wonderful and far flung people without having to leave the house as well. Cheers Bruce.