Natural World: Giant Otters of the Amazon

This nature doc is something of a mixed bag. On the downside, it’s full of jaunty, cutesy music and presenter Charlie Hamilton James is much too quick to side with his primary subjects. Surely, the first rule of wildlife filmmaking is that goodies and baddies don’t exist – for every thriving baby otter, there’s a starving baby cayman. However, there are reasons to tune in – primarily, the fetchingly lo-fi nature of the enterprise.

We’re used to being ridiculously up close and personal with rare animals now, but when Hamilton James spots a jaguar on the banks of the Amazonian river, the fleeting glimpse feels more striking than the ‘Cribs’-style tour of its burrow that recent natural-history extravaganzas have led us to expect. Worth a look.