UK TV programmes to watch this week : 02/12/2017

Blue Planet II (BBC 1/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Sunday 3rd December 2017)

Documentary series narrated by David Attenborough which explores the planet’s oceans. Coasts are the most changeable of the ocean worlds, but they offer great riches. Here sea lions beach large tuna, and moray eels crawl over land to catch their prey.

Coastal Railways with Julie Walters (Channel 4/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Sunday 3rd December 2017)

Julie Walters, one of the country’s best-loved actors, continues her tour of the most beautiful and interesting stretches of coastal railway routes in the UK. In this episode, Julie leaves Newcastle and the city’s famous brown ale, for a high-speed train to Edinburgh. She stops at the beautiful coastal town of Alnmouth and visits the disused station at Alnwick, where the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ craze started. Julie heads for Berwick and goes out to sea with a lobster breeder, visiting the biggest gannet colony on Earth. In Edinburgh, Julie explores the intriguing connections between the railway and the famous Balmoral Hotel’s palm court and clock tower.

Expedition Volcano (BBC 2/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Sunday 3rd December 2017)

Two-part documentary following a team of scientists who are in the Congo to investigate rarely visited volcanoes and try to predict when they will erupt. For the past week, the expedition has focused on Nyiragongo. Now Chris Jackson and his fellow geologists are heading to the nearby volcano Nyamulagira, one of the most active yet least explored volcanoes on the planet. Few have visited this volcano, for a good reason – the forests that blanket its slopes hide a number of armed groups. The team travel on a UN helicopter flight at treetop level to avoid being hit by groundfire, before landing as close to the active crater as they can. They then have only a few hours to gain as much data as possible to help predict future eruptions.

The Secret Life of the Zoo (Channel 4/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Wednesday 6th December 2017)

It’s mating season for Chester Zoo’s onagers and after two years living alone, male Holmes is released into the female paddock. It’s a bruising encounter as he goes straight for his old flame Zarrin, before chasing every other female in sight, including the camel next door. Galapagos tortoise Charlie is losing weight and keepers believe that it’s down to bullying from her older sister. They step in with an innovative system to try and alleviate the problem. Keeper Niall barters with eldest chimp Boris for the return of a large stick that the chimps have been brandishing, but Boris is wary of dominant male Dylan stealing his reward, and plays hardball with Niall. And Plo, a village weaver, is tirelessly building a nest to impress a female. If the foundations aren’t strong enough to support a whole family it will be dismissed on first inspection, and he could be destined to remain a bachelor.

The Channel (Channel 4/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Wednesday 6th December 2017)

The English Channel is the world’s busiest waterway. This ambitious access-all-areas series meets the people who keep the system working, moving 17 million of us across the sea each year. The Channel Tunnel carries 50,000 passengers and 7000 trucks every day. It’s a pinch point in a vital trade network that fills our shops and keeps our economy moving. And it’s also a testbed for Anglo-French relations, as maintenance crews from both sides cooperate under the sea, on a project that connects two countries who are now pulling apart. This episode explores areas that have never been filmed before, following British head of maintenance Vince – the man charged with keeping the tunnel moving – and one of its longest-serving engineers, Richard, who helped to build the Tunnel back in 1988.

Blitz (BBC 2/HD | 9:00pm to 10:00pm | Thursday 7th December 2017)

During the Blitz over 450,000 bombs dropped on Britain, and every bomb has its own story. Episode three follows a bomb that fell on Jellicoe Street in the Scottish town of Clydebank. It was a tightly knit community of ship builders and factory workers who worked hard in difficult conditions. For the children though, life in the tenements was like being part of one big family as Patrick Docherty and Jack Tasker remember. But on the 13th March 1941 that would change forever.

Brunel (Channel 5/HD | 8:00pm to 9:00pm | Friday 8th December 2017)

Two-part documentary series. Rob Bell tells the story of the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, exploring his complex personality as well as his prolific achievements. Brunel was just 19 when his father appointed him his assistant and chief engineer on the Thames Tunnel. After a potentially fatal accident during the construction, he was recuperating in Bristol when he came up with a design for the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Later, he became the official engineer to the proposed Great Western Railway, and more was to follow.

The Last Leg (Channel 4/HD | 10:00pm to 11:05pm | Friday 8th December 2017)

The live, joyous, topical comedy extravaganza hosted by Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe examines the biggest and most entertaining news stories and rounds up the main talking points of the week. In each show, they are joined by a live audience and guests from the worlds of comedy, entertainment and politics to help dissect the week’s events.

All TV guide information taken from DigiGuide — www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=15119.