Channel hop
Mark Peters
Adolf Hitler was arguably the most extraordinary leader who ever lived. A man incapable of forming normal human relationships, lacking compassion and fuelled by anger and prejudice, his hatred would lead to the Holocaust and his desire for conquest would leave much of Europe in ruins. British comedian Eddie Izzard summed him up rather eloquently in his performance, branding him a "mass-murdering f***head".
Hitler left behind a legacy of destruction almost unparalleled in history, despite a few other sadistic psychopaths having given it their best shot. Yet this man, so full of violence, was once adored by millions of supporters. (BBC Knowledge, Friday at 9pm) is a three-part documentary presented by British historian Laurence Rees that explores how the Nazi leader managed to charm a nation and transform himself from a simple soldier into a ranting fuhrer.
After Germany's defeat in the first world war, Hitler would have remained a mere failed painter if not for his training as a propaganda agent, which allowed him to teach his fellow soldiers about the dangers of communism. In 1919, aged 30, Hitler began to realise his life's mission - the eradication of Jews from Germany - and his warped appeal grew amid a political crisis triggered by the collapse of the German economy.
As someone who didn't pay much attention in history class at school, I'm certainly no expert on the second world war, but with insights and interviews from those who lived through Hitler's tenure, and from those who knew him, I found fascinating. There's plenty of archival footage of Hitler's theatrical speeches, lengthy rants that build into almost childish temper tantrums, but Rees doesn't attempt to humanise this monster, he simply wonders at how Hitler, described in one interview as "a bit weird", managed to pull off such a remarkable public-relations campaign.
Thankfully, he was unable to charm his way out of an under-attack Fuhrerbunker in 1945.
For a spell of lighter relief, supernatural drama series premieres on Tuesday (Star World, 8.45pm), bringing a more frivolous flavour to the overflowing cauldron of recent television witchiness. Inspired by Melissa de la Cruz's bestselling book of the same name (sorry, British soap fans, this is not a biography on Pat Butcher and Dot Cotton), the show follows a family of modern-day white witches, led by matriarch Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond).
To protect her two twenty-something daughters, Beauchamp has raised them magic-free but, with the arrival of her estranged sister, Wendy (Madchen Amick; ), their idyllic life is about to change. An evil force (not Hitler) returns to the fictional seaside town of East End intent on harming the Beauchamp womenfolk.
is light on the horror and heavy on the fluff and its campy bitchiness is more akin to than the saucy sorcery of and . But while it's far from being the perfect witch's brew, it's potent enough to deserve a second viewing.
Given the recent reports of snake encounters around town, it's only fitting that the (Nat Geo Wild, Wednesday 9.35pm) begins with an episode dedicated to the planet's most lethal specimen: the black mamba.
Rising like the undead back from the grave, black mambas, drawn by the heat of the African sun, leave the shadows to go house hunting for a suburban sanctuary in summer. But the mamba (pictured), lovingly known as "death incarnate" or, if you prefer, the Hitler of snakes, isn't what you'd call a popular neighbour. While some will be sure to meet the business end of a shovel, others will be lucky enough to be rescued by the snake-wrangling preservation team that is the subject of this programme.
At the team's custom-built observation facility, the world's first mambarium, in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, one guest, Mercury, has been enjoying summer camp a little too much and is about to deliver a new generation of fearsome miniature assassins into the world.
While they are most certainly stunning creatures, if you have even the slightest phobia of snakes, this episode is not for you.
Next week's instalment: stay out of the water because here comes the . Don't worry, I'm not moving off of this sofa.
