What was on Wednesday 15th May

River Monsters: Untold Stories

Animal Planet - 9pm

Who's in it?

Jeremy Wade, the grizzled star of this documentary, convincingly made the case that sometimes fishing isn't just fishing. Sometimes… it's a "lucky dip from HELL".

In a nutshell

Now here was a wildlife programme that had no problem whatsoever in sexing up its subject. The sawfish, for example, wasn't simply referred to as a sawfish – it was a CHAINSAW DESTROYER (scrawled in horror film font over the screen). Admittedly, this was a very accurate description for a creature that basically has a foot-long blade lined with teeth sticking out of its thrashing face.

Then there was the stingray that was covered in "necrotic venom" that melts your flesh. Just to ram the point home, we were treated to a Jaws-like reconstruction of humans being slowly killed by the thing. As our man Jeremy flew around the world meeting the monsters face to face, we got more incredible anecdotes – like how some cowboys fell into a river and were literally zapped to death by electric eels. And how there's a tiny fish that can burrow into your skin and hollow you out from the inside. While you're still alive. Bet you're glad you know this now, eh?

What's the verdict?

Apart from the raft of facts that will make you never want to visit Australia or South America, what makes this show work so well is Jeremy's almost amusing approach to finding these beasts. He just goes out there with a rod and FISHES for them. Like they're trout. Trout that can rot your legs off or eat your liver. Robson Green take note: THIS is what extreme fishing looks like.