Koalas: Cute and Cuddly, C5, 7pm
THEY may be adorable (and Australian icons) but, as the first in a two-part documentary discovers, the koala population has been in decline. The tree-dwelling marsupials face challenges ranging from a dwindling food supply and predators to human interference. The programme examines the creatures’ battle for survival as they adapt to a constantly changing environment, as well as the steps being taken to boost their numbers.
Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village, BBC4, 7.30pm
ARCHAEOLOGIST Ben Robinson explores the story of the English village from Norman times to now. His first destination is Warkworth, Northumberland, where he discovers clues that point back almost 1000 years to the Norman Conquest and how the invaders laid the foundations of a community, still visible to this day. He argues Warkworth, like many of the UK’s oldest villages, was born of terror, oppression and foreign invasion.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, C5, 9pm
FOGLE journeys to the rugged Irish Atlantic coastline to stay with Judith, 80, who rejected a modern way of life for one closer to nature. Fogle learns how she and her late husband created a utopia and discovers how – even at an advanced age – she is determined to remain alone in the wild. Fogle joins her in her solitary cottage nestled in the hillside, a treasure trove of art and books. Shunning the modern world, Judith lives by candlelight, drinks water from a well and uses a spinning wheel.
Catastrophe, C4, 10pm
WRITTEN by and starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney about an American man and an Irish woman falling in love while navigating increasingly thorny situations. The comedy continues when they decide to embark on a fitness drive. When Sharon visits her less-than-sympathetic GP, it dawns on her that she’s not in the peak condition she imagined. Rob endures a fruit-based confrontation at a local park and Dave shows how much he’s embracing fatherhood.
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