The new batch of documentaries on ATV World this evening confirms Wednesday night is easily the most interesting night of the week on English-language television, despite racing hogging the channel on TVB Pearl.
The first, Life In The Freezer (World, 8.55pm), has David Attenborough in a warm parka showing us how living things manage to survive the appalling cold in Antarctica. Few of them seem to enjoy it as much as the emperor penguins, who strut their stuff regardless of the weather.
Battle Of The Sexes In The Animal World (World, 9.25pm) is a six-part series based on the self-evident truth that male and female animals are in a constant state of conflict over sex and parenting.
The voice-over (by Samuel West) points out that all the males and females of most species really have in common is a deep instinct that they need one another to make a second generation. The rest is a mixture of resentment, rivalry and rejection.
The programme proves its point this evening by looking first at the many and varied ways there are of being a male.
All the examples seem to confirm to the various husband stereotypes.
There is the small rodent that during a short breeding period, abandons everything, even eating, to have sex with as many females as possible, then dies, exhausted and half-starved.
