Walking The Amazon (Channel 5, 9pm)
Planet of the Apemen: Battle for the Earth (BBC1, 8pm)
History Cold Case (BBC2, 9pm)
ED STAFFORD, pictured above, really is a man in a league of his own, having decided to walk the length of the Amazon virtually single-handed, as an audience at Durham’s Gala Theatre found out last Sunday, when he dropped in for a chat.
For those unlucky enough to have missed his visit, this exciting two-part TV documentary shows the former British Army captain setting off with close friend and fellow explorer Luke Collier to Peru for the start of a 4,500-mile journey.
The pair are accompanied by a single guide, 24-year-old Peruvian Oswaldo, and intend to film the expedition themselves.
The trio’s first task is to find the source of the Amazon, Nevado Mismi, which is itself a three-week walk from the starting line. The only thing standing in their way is the massive Colca Canyon, a ravine twice as deep as the more famous Grand Canyon.
The pair are on the verge of tackling their toughest climb yet when Collier declares that he is planning to take a quicker, but more dangerous, route. It soon becomes clear that Collier is way out of his depth on the climb, and the others wait nervously at the summit for him.
The incident briefly reunites the pair but, 90 days into the journey, Collier announces that he is going home. “I know he can complete this expedition on his own,” Collier reflects as he says his goodbyes.
“He doesn’t need me.”
As a result, Stafford is left to face the deadly drug-trafficking area of Peru, known as the Red Zone, with no one but Oswaldo for company.
“I’m walking the Amazon on my own,” he laughs nervously. “Crikey.”
The Red Zone proves to be a daunting place indeed, and every local who Stafford meets advises him to turn back or be killed. The majority of the population earns money from processing the coca leaves that are used to make cocaine, and thus the locals are wary of gringos, who they also fear could be looking to exploit their land for oil. For Oswaldo, the final straw comes when a death threat is hurled from the window of a passing car, and Stafford is left to face the Red Zone alone.
He refuses to abandon his trek, and he must rely on the services of day guides to see him through the jungle until he meets 29-year-old Cho, a local woodsman who knows the drug gangs.
Cho agrees to accompany Stafford for five days, and the first leg of their journey together sees them enter the deepest, most dangerous part of the gangs’ territories.
W E are the most advanced species of life that has ever existed and six billion of us inhabit the Earth. Can the dinosaurs say that? No.
The thing is, by rights, we shouldn’t be here at all. Once upon a time, we shared our planet with other species of hominid who were stronger, more numerous and better evolved than homo sapiens. These were homo erectus and homo neanderthalensis.
But how were they different? What gave them the advantage? And how, when the odds were stacked against us, did we survive?
Combining action-packed adventure and fascinating re-enactments, the documentary, Planet of the Apemen: Battle for the Earth, reveals how we met, interacted and fought these other hominids, reversing a fate that was almost inevitable.
A GRIM mystery was uncovered by the clever people who use skeletons to find out more about Britain’s past.
In History Cold Case, Professor Sue Black, Dr Xanthe Mallett and Professor Caroline Wilkinson all conduct research at the Centre for Human Anatomy and Identification at the University of Dundee.
They use carbon dating, bone chemical analysis and facial reconstruction.
This week, the team begins by investigating the remains of 17 people discovered in a dry well shaft in Norwich. As they each discuss their theories, they come to the conclusion that the remains may date from the early 1200s, and suspect that this is a case of medieval murder.
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