'David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies' is another must-see television event from the revered presenter

With television channels all preparing their festive scheduling, there's a noticeable lack of new shows premiering on Hong Kong telly at the moment, so this week brings you a brand new American drama series that you may never get a chance to watch, the beginning of the end of a classic British comedy that may, or may not, be legal to watch and yet another spectacular documentary series from David Attenborough, which you absolutely should watch.

The power of flight is one of nature's greatest achievements and today more than 100 billion creatures soar through the sky, from the tiniest of nectar-swigging hummingbirds to bizarre winged reptiles and sonar-guided bats. (TVB Pearl, Tuesday at 9.30pm) sees the British naturalist, who will turn 90 next year, travel through time to unravel the astonishing story of flying animals, a tale that dates back more than 300 million years.

"We human beings are very latecomers to the skies, and although we might think that we're now pretty good at it, the natural world, with the help of several million years of evolution, has produced a dazzling range of aeronauts whose talents are far beyond ours," Attenborough says.

The three-part series begins this week with , which focuses on insects. Starting with the evolution of dragonflies (the mid-air mating ritual of damsel flies will put your most back-breaking sexual acrobatics to shame) before moving on to the migration patterns of the painted lady butterfly and the stunning aerial manoeuvres of the common bluebottle, Attenborough once again presents a master class in the natural world. Travelling to the jungles of Borneo, a hotbed for animal activity that the octogenarian has visited so often it must feel like his second home, we meet the monstrous Atlas beetle, an armoured, horned creature that could have sprung from the imagination of madcap filmmaker Tim Burton. Much like its human counterpart, the male Atlas beetle spends most of its life on a quest for food and females.

Next to follow insects into the skies were vertebrates but, with their larger bodies, they faced different challenges. Next week's episode, , examines flying frogs and lizards before the pterosaur is brought back to life with CGI.

The third episode, , concludes with the study of bats and birds (the footage of peregrine falcons and barn owls hunting is fascinating for even the mildest of ornithologists).