This is our planet, the Earth.

With things like grizzly bears and Don Cherry knocking about its not surprising people spend hours locked up with mother nature porn like ‘Planet earth’ and ‘Blue planet’. I just keep thinking to myself

“Earth… the sexy bitch. I want to get to know her better… but from a distance, obviously”.

Earth: the biography is a BBC / Discovery channel 2-part documentary series focused on the planet itself rather than its wildlife. It takes a step back, seeing the planet in the context of our solar system and it gives an all encompassing crash course in all things Earth. Once you get past the IQ low balling of the intro, our Scottish host Iain Stewart immediately gets to work. Iain doesn’t just spew out dry dougans from a studio armchair and expect you to swallow. He puts on his boots and jacket and gets up mother earth with a flashlight strapped to his 'heed'. See, here he is right in there:

"Give 'er buddy"

He starts by climbing. Then he climbs into an active volcano, right into it. Then he flies a jet. Then he hikes in the desert and goes diving in underwater caves and tunnels under a glacier and burns ice that’s filled with methane and each time it’s for a reason and often surprisingly poignant. These short investigations into some of the most extraordinary places on the planet are tastefully illustrated with excellent C.G. models and time lapse footage. Iain is an enthusiastic teacher and I really can’t emphasise how enlightened I felt after the series' 4-hour duration (I watched it twice). Throughout the series he covers the Birth of life and early life forms, the continental plates, the atmosphere, Climate, Weather, Natural disasters and shed loads more. I’m sure some people will find this retreads some things they already knew but did you know lightning sometimes strikes outwards fifty miles towards space? This program goes much further than common knowledge and is truly delicious food for the brain.