TV review: Snow Babies

While the Happy Feet and Ice Age films are family-based blockbusters full of comedy, action and famous actors' names – the real world could not be more different, as last night's Snow Babies proved.

The programme was a heart-warming tale of a range of baby animals born in some of the coldest and harshest places on Earth.

Starting in the Arctic and Antarctic, Caroline Quentin, best known being on Men Behaving Badly, follows the struggles of the newly-born.

From the cute baby emperor penguins to the human-like snow monkeys to the nimble reindeer, there is an animal for everyone to adore. But, unlike the animation we are used to, minus 80 degrees does not look so fun as the animals forge to keep warm and feed themselves.

It starts with the emperor penguins. The father penguin is left with the mother's unbroken egg as she rushes on a 70km round journey to get food. When she returns, she lovingly greets her partner before gently persuading him to give back her child before he takes his turn to venture out for food.

While there may at this point be much 'mmm'ing' and 'ahhh'ing' from the sofa, Quentin quickly reminds us of the dangers they face.

The male penguin has not eaten for 100 days, the baby penguin gets lost from its mother and then it is swamped by other mothers, who almost crush the young 'un. Nice to look at, but rather them than me.

And that's the theme for the rest of the fascinating programme.

Next we are shown the Arctic bears. Again, cute to look at but both the mother and cub have a marathon-like trek to make in the search for food.

If the cub fails to keep up, it dies.

The snow monkeys. So human-like as the baby cuddles to its mother and then plays with its friends. But the perils of abandonment and certain death exist due to the troop's strict class system.

Clicky, by the looks of things.

Then the reindeer. The calves have just days to learn to walk before taking on the longest migration of any animal across frozen sea to get to much-sought grassland.

On their way, wolves create panic before picking off one calf. Another one bites the dust.

The facts of live can be harsh, and Snow Babies does not shy away from that.

This was not just a programme showing the happiness of youth and the moments which will make us smile.

It shows the raw truth of live out in the wild, following on well from BBC programmes like Frozen Plant and Life, both narrated by David Attenborough.

Maybe, to be honest, that was who was missing. Quentin tells the story of the animals well, but I couldn't help almost waiting for a gag to come in.

But that's harsh – the programme is gripping from start to finish, especially when, as if by luck, all the snow babies followed from the start of their lives survive all the perils and reach adulthood.

They have learned how to swim, walk, feed themselves and be independent.

And we, the audience, have learned again how beautiful, if dangerous, the wild can be.

Alex Ross