Aussie soaps have produced more than their fair share of dramatic stars, most - though their acts may be as slick as oilpaint - a little rough around the edges. Yet none compares with the Australian neighbour at the centre of Man's Heritage (Pearl, 8.30pm), the bowerbird, whose streetwise cheek is exceeded only by his charm. Lying between Australia's harsh outback and the Great Barrier Reef is Lamington National Park, an untouched part of the eastern rainforest - where three unusual neighbours go about their daily lives. Bowerbird, the playboy of the forest, lovingly tends his bachelor pad waiting for a passing female to visit; scrub turkey frantically defends his compost heap from huge lizards, dingoes and snakes; while echidna, mother of the world's most unusual babies, innocently causes bowerbird untold miseries. As the playboy of the neighbourhood, bowerbird's sole ambition is to mate with as many females as possible, while avoiding any responsibility whatsoever when it comes to looking after the babies. However, because competition for willing females is fierce in the forest, his amorous qualities are equally matched by his less than gentlemanly strategies that are designed to severely reduce any other playboy's chance of sex. The habits of the forest dwellers are as colourful as the creatures: there are the blue lobsters that clumsily stumble along the dry forest trails; the hedgehog-like echidna lays its eggs then carries them around in folds of skin until they hatch; and bowerbirds build compost heaps to avoid having to incubate eggs themselves. But all is not perfect in this magic garden, where a scarcity of predators has meant that birds can be brightly-coloured and spend as much time as they like on the ground without a serious threat of being eaten. Birds are the subject of Global Family (World, 6.30pm), too, which journeys to northern Japan, where a group of Peregrine falcons live on a craggy cliff. In spite of the bird's speed and flying abilities, its nest and chicks are remarkably vulnerable to predators. This spectacularly photographed film is studded with footage of the falcon bringing down its prey in mid-air and intimate shots of the adults with their chicks. The Power Of One (World, 9.35pm) could have been a considerably better film if it hadn't been given the Rocky treatment, but, being by the same director, John Avildsen, it's what you would expect. The story is about a white boxer, Stephen Dorff, who gets into the ring with his oppressed black buddies in an attempt to achieve integration. Morgan Freeman steals the film as the hero's trainer but it still fails to tackle honestly, and trivialises, a serious subject. John Geilgud and Armin Mueller-Stahl also star. The movie was filmed in Botswana. We go Down Under again on TVB in Hurricane Smith (Pearl, 9.30pm), where Carl Weathers journeys to find his sister but ends up getting involved with the Australian mafia. Along the way, there are some eye-popping stunts and, in the uncut version, a liberal dose of nudity, but we shall not see that. A star cast including Miranda Richardson, Charles Dance and Clive Owen can't breath life into Century (World, 1.35am), a stuffy period drama.
