What's On TV: Bear Grylls back with Britain's Biggest Adventures; Tru Calling returns

Even if we exclude politics, religion and sporting teams, there are still many things on this big ol' crazy planet that polarise opinion. Things that are bright and wonderful to some, rile and offend others. Mooncakes, Canto-pop and Jeremy Clarkson, for example, leave little room for ambivalence, and rightly so - they are all awful.

Most of our problems are, of course, first-world issues, such as slow-streaming Wi-fi or running out of couscous. But having the freedom to express ourselves without fear of persecution, helps define who we are. You may decide to believe everything Fox News tells you, and to scoff durian for breakfast. In both of these instances you would be a buffoon, but, hey, our differences make the world a more exciting place.

When I informed friends that I was previewing another show featuring Bear Grylls (Britain's Biggest Adventures; BBC Earth, Tuesday at 10.45pm), the survival expert drew equally tenacious black and white responses. Following allegations that the British adventurer (above) had stayed at hotels instead of sleeping in the wild, as he claimed, while shooting Born Survivor, and the controversy surrounding the killing of an endangered crocodile by contestants on his reality-television show The Island (which he may or may not have had any control over), many former fans had lost faith in Grylls.

On his most recent outings (which were reviewed in this column, mainly because the chief scout is on the TV more often than the gobby Gordon Ramsay), however, he has shown his more humble side. Whether it was a self-conscious decision to tone down the bravado or simply a well-timed marketing strategy, who knows, but it has certainly made his shows more enjoyable.

Britain's Biggest Adventures, a three-part series that journeys through some of the most spectacular landscapes in the British Isles, continues along a similar path. Before exploring the Scottish Highlands and England's Yorkshire Dales, Grylls hits rugged north Wales, with a trek around Snowdonia. With boundless enthusiasm, he free-dives for mantis shrimp, scales treacherous mountains and soars through the sky in a paraglider. Basically, this is Grylls having a stab at making a wildlife and travel documentary, and the effect is a little like David Attenborough mainlining Red Bull.

Departing from his typical know-it-all approach, the celebrity survivalist invites geologists and scientists to educate him about the natural wonders he encounters, and the result may actually change your opinion of the don't-try-this-at-home action man.