Jungle (BBC1): THERE were times you wondered if Charlottte Uhlenbroek, "the BBC's female Indiana Jones" as she's been described, was the best person for the job.

She certainly knows her animals and insects, her plants and vegetation. But - and, for someone about to go sky high to explore the upper reaches of the Borneo rainforest, it was a big but - she's scared of heights.

Her sadistic producer had devised several ways of getting her up in the air to view the canopy of the rainforest, about which we know less than the surface of the moon. One of the world's last frontiers, rainforests cover only six per cent of the planet but contain half of all its life.

Such jungles are ripe for exploration, but damn difficult to reach. First, Charlotte had to haul herself up a tree 75-80 metres high (that's nearly 250ft) on a rope. "Oooh, scary," she said between much heavy breathing, while explaining that climbing to the top was the only way to appreciate the animals that lived there. Whether they appreciated her poking her nose into their lives wasn't recorded.

Not only were we treated to spectacular, breathtaking scenery, but also shots of the rainforest's inhabitants. Like orang-utans, who use their weight to swing between trees. Gibbons, not Peter Stringfellow, are the kings of the swingers, thanks to their unique wrist action enabling them to "gallop through the air".

Tiny dragons use skin flaps like wings, and frogs' webbed feet become tiny parachutes to break their fall. You'll believe a snake can fly after seeing it captured on film.

Charlotte discovered rooftop gardens where flowers, such as orchids, grow in an explosion of colour, and where ponds formed in plant leaves provide drinking fountains for woolly monkeys and breeding pools for frogs and even crabs.

The producer had more tricks to test the presenter's fear of heights. She was put in a motorised balloon, sitting in an open basket, legs dangling over the side as it skimmed the treetops.

Then it was time for a solo flight, strapped to a helium balloon floating 250ft off the ground, anchored to a rope slung across the tops of the trees. Last, but not least, Charlotte went exploring in a pagoda on the arm of a giant crane erected in the forest by biologists.

She did make a hasty return to the ground as storm clouds gathered, realising that a crane was "one great lightening conductor". It rained so hard, that "even trees are in danger of drowning", she claimed.

Pausing only to loiter outside a cave as half-a-million bats flew out on a night-time hunting expedition, she then hauled herself back up a tree to spend the night in the canopy.

This was all fascinating stuff and good to look at, not least the sight of Charlotte in a tight T-shirt being indecently assaulted by inquisitive orang-utans. Animals on TV haven't had so much fun since the gorillas encountered David Attenborough.

Published: 27/11/2003