Brian Ladoon

Costa Botes takes us far, far north of his native New Zealand for this magical documentary about man's four-legged friends. Brian Ladoon is an eccentric, lone-wolf Canadian who has dedicated his life to saving the extinction-threatened Qimmiq - a species of canine used by local Inuits for centuries as hunting-hounds but now abandoned in favour of motorised skidoos. The snowy wilds of remote northern Manitoba make for a stirringly picturesque backdrop for footage of the rugged but irresistibly cute Qimmiq, not to mention the polar bears who occasionally amble by. Doing their best to make an impact among such furry scene stealers are the crustily ornery Ladoon and his unflappably laid-back younger Kiwi assistant, former teen-TV pinup Caleb Ross.

A documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.

A half-hour documentary series set in a unique Arctic town with true northern exposure that provides a front-row seat for some of the closest human-bear encounters ever seen on television.

Chris Packham takes us to the scene of some of the weirdest natural phenomena on the planet, telling the real story of the events behind the headlines. Nature can be cute, scary and stunning, but as Chris Packham discovers in these two packed programs, it can also provide the most awesome, amazing and astonishing sights you’ll ever see – including a car cocooned by caterpillars in Holland; exploding toads in Germany; fish falling from the sky and a storm that turned Sydney crimson. Watching original footage and consulting eyewitnesses and scientists, Chris unravels the facts behind some of the most bizarre and mysterious natural wonders to ever appear on the planet – and explains what on earth was going on.