Cert PG Stars 5

This hugely important and inspiring documentary warning of impending catastrophe is all the more terrifying for being delivered by the most trusted and respected broadcaster Britain has ever produced.

Standing among the radioactive ruins of Chernobyl, Sunday evening TV favourite and all-round national treasure David Attenborough addresses us in his familiar humble and dignified manner, while his location underlines his argument climate change is a man-made mistake and we need to clean it up. And fast.

Now 93 years old but with no less passion than when he presented his first TV programme, and driven from the knowledge he can’t carry on forever, there’s an unmistakable urgency in his tone.

Giving us a whistle stop tour of his globetrotting career, he persuasively argues his very longevity as an expert on the natural world gives him a unique perspective and makes him the perfect person to deliver this most dire of warnings.

A companion piece to his recent TV show, Extinction: The Facts, he points out with our planet having witnessed five major extinction events in its lifetime – the last being the dinosaurs – we are pushing the Earth towards a sixth, with ourselves the victim.

Having presented us with a terrifying litany of destruction he proceeds to offer a terrifying view of our kids’ potential future, and it’s shocking seeing this most optimistic and beloved of TV personalities in a moment of despair.

And yet he moves on to convince us we possess the means to reverse the damage done and create a clean world for future generations, turning this into an uplifting call to arms and a celebration of the wonder of life.

As ever he’s accompanied by a supporting cast of tigers, gorillas, polar bears and more, while the photography from mountains to oceans and savannahs is as breathtaking as we’d expect.

All climate change deniers should be strapped to a chair with their eyes clamped open and forced to watch. On repeat.