Sex and violence, love and death, swimming sloths and yellow crazy ants... David Attenborough’s breathtaking epic Planet Earth 2 was worth the licence fee on its own, by Jim Shelley 

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Planet Earth 2 was a gift from the TV Gods - or rather from the TV God, Sir David Attenborough.

British television’s most legendary, most loved, figure is 90 now. So this was a series we had no right to assume we’d ever see, much like everything he’s made probably since 2009’s Life (a title that makes you wonder if he thought it might have been his farewell).

His recent forays on Sky were innovative and enjoyable enough but this was not Micro Monsters 3D. This was a major Attenborough opus on the BBC, a follow-up to one of his best, most important, works, Planet Earth.

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Gift: Planet Earth 2 was a gift from the TV Gods - or rather from the TV God, Sir David Attenborough

Of course, we take the stunning photography, powerful stories, and close-ups of the incredible creatures captured in Attenborough’s shows for granted. But the use of ‘ultra-high definition’ in particular made Planet Earth 2 even more breathtakingly beautiful and epic than usual.

The scale of its ambition certainly put other programmes to shame.

‘We can now show life on our planet in entirely new ways and reveal new wildlife dramas for the very first time,’ he promised. This was no idle boast it transpired, as the sequence of amazing images from the shows to come (like a lion launching itself off the ground to try and bring down a galloping passing giraffe) proved.

The theme, broadly, was survival - or the struggle to survive – on Planet Earth’s mountains, jungles, deserts, grasslands, the world’s cities, and (here) its islands.

Coming 10 years after the original Planet Earth, at first glance Episode One looked almost overly familiar - like David Attenborough’s Greatest Hits. Devoted parent penguins, lovelorn albatrosses, terrifying komodo dragons, cuddly lemurs, and iguanas in the Galapagos... they were all there.

But it was testimony to Attenborough’s enduring enthusiasm and astonishing intellect that he still found them and their day-to-day stories and adventures as fascinating as ever.

Here is my Top 10 of the Most Memorable Moments from Episode One.

1. The opening shot of our hero

Attenborough hasn’t worked in television making these programmes without knowing how to make an entrance.

Planet Earth 2 opened with a stunning shot: a white sea of snowy mountain peaks with a black dot floating across it far away like a child’s balloon.

This was our hero, flying in a hot air balloon two miles in the air – as you do. Or as he does anyway...

Dramatic opening: Planet Earth 2 opened with a stunning shot: a white sea of snowy mountain peaks with a black dot floating across it far away like a child’s balloon

Even at the age of 90, he had no hat or scarf, just an ordinary blue anorak as a token concession to the cold, as nonchalant as if he had gone to walk the dog, rather than introduce his new series like a cross between Darwin and the Milk Tray Man.

‘Looking down from two miles above the surface of the earth it’s impossible not to be impressed by the sheer grandeur, splendour, and power of the natural world,’ he announced.

He was still impressed. And thanks to him and Planet Earth 2 we would be too.

2. A pygmy three-toed sloth swimming

Our first island was Escudo off the coast of Panama, where a pygmy three-toed sloth was feeling frisky. Unfortunately with only a few hundred sloths still in existence, his opportunities were limited – which he seemed to know, judging by his reaction to the cry of a female out somewhere on the island.

‘This, for a sloth, is a quick reaction,’ Attenborough remarked drily as the green mossy monster headed off to find her.

Frisky: In Escudo, off the coast of Panama, a pygmy three-toed sloth was seen feeling frisky

With the tangled mass of the mangroves and a channel of deep water in the way, the sloth had no choice but to swim: a surprisingly graceful, beautifully buoyant, doggy paddle.

Sadly, it was all in vain. The female he had heard already had a baby. And even for a sloth the six months he would have to wait before she would mate again was too long.

Not exactly spoilt for choice: Unfortunately with only a few hundred sloths still in existence, his opportunities were limited

3. Iguanas deep-sea diving

Volcanically active, the island of Fernandina in the Galapagos is understandably desolate, so it was no surprise to see an iguana hungrily feeding on whatever it could find – a mass of bright green moss. On the sea bed...

The iguanas there can swim 30 metres down into the amazing turquoise water and hold their breath for half an hour before going back on land to bask in the sun. All 7,000 of them, packed closely together like tourists on a Bank Holiday in Brighton.

On today's menu...: Iguanas on the island of Fernandina, in the Galapagos, tend to feed on whatever they can find

4. Racer snakes hunting baby iguanas in packs

A marine iguana’s most dangerous journey is its first, when it emerges from under the shingle and has to make it to the sea. Normally, you’d expect their predators to be seabirds, like turtles. But they were snakes: racer snakes, which sounded scarier and scary enough without the sight of them hunting in packs, like a scene from Indiana Jones. Happily the baby iguanas scarpered, easily out-running their pursuers. Less happily, many were ambushed by more cunning racer snakes not racing at all but lying in wait by the rocks. One chase scene and narrow escape was more thrilling than anything in James Bond and actually not that different.

Treacherous journey: A marine iguana’s most dangerous journey is its first, when it emerges from under the shingle and has to make it to the sea

Thrilling: One chase scene and narrow escape between a baby iganua and racer snakes was more thrilling than anything in James Bond and actually not that different

5. Komodo dragons making MMA look mild

No David Attenborough series is complete without the hideous, terrifying, presence of the creatures that have, he said, dominated the islands in Indonesia for four million years: Komodo Dragons.

The missing link between dinosaurs and armoured knights, the dragons were ten feet long, weighed 150lbs, with serrated teeth, tongues like hissing, drooling, lances, and muscular tails that struck ‘with the power of sledgehammers.’

Wildlife staple: No David Attenborough series is complete without the hideous, terrifying, presence of Komodo Dragons

Here to stay: The creatures that have, he said, dominated the islands in Indonesia for four million years

As usual it was a female that started the males to embark on a titanic, brutal, battle when one giant chatted up a dragon that another (even bigger) beast already had his eye on. (Given that they females only come into season once a year, admittedly such squabbles are inevitable.)

The MMA cage fights had nothing on these.

‘In dragon society size is everything,’ Sir David observed. Not just with komodo dragons either...

6. Penguins in the forest

After so documentaries and films, you’d have thought we’d seen it all about penguins but the sight of the little chaps and their loved ones as they waddled through the lush forests of sub-Antarctic New Zealand was extraordinary.

Later on, we returned to more familiar footage: the 50-miles journey of a heroic male returning to feed his chick and ward off the Skua trying to snatch it, surfing gigantic waves and trudging across the active volcanic Zavodovski Island in the South Ocean, through the largest penguin colony in the world. It looked like the Glastonbury Festival for penguins, but our heroic penguin found his missus among the 1.5 million other penguins, reuniting with a loving dance and some nose rubbing, followed by regurgitation. You can’t beat it.

Extraordinary sight: The sight of the penguins and their loved ones as they waddled through the lush forests of sub-Antarctic New Zealand was extraordinary

7. The albatross waiting for his true love

Even on an island free from predators, where all kinds of birds arrive to mate (like a land of love hotels for birds), there’s always one male with no partner and its invariably an albatross. He only saw his mate once every six months and she was late. (Typical female, she was probably doing her plumage.) Happily, she made it in the end and their beak clashing and chin tickling made for romantic foreplay. Presumably...

Deplayed date: One albatross only saw his mate once every six months - and she was late

8. Yellow Crazy Ants versus Red Crabs

The march of the red crabs on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is said Sir David ‘one of the greatest natural spectacles on earth’ – and who are we to doubt him?

Once a year 50 million of them return to the sea to breed. Not all of them made it though as they were attacked by ‘vast super-colonies of Yellow Crazy Ants.’ The YCA gang had washed up from visiting ships, expanded without restriction, and now ambushed unfortunate isolated individuals by ‘squirting acid in the crabs’ eyes and mouths.’ Ouch !

‘The crabs have no defence. Blinded and confused, they’re doomed.’

The best-named species on earth, the Yellow Crazy Ants had struck again.

Great spectacle: The march of the red crabs on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is said Sir David ‘one of the greatest natural spectacles on earth’

Craziness: A large number of crabs, on their way to the sea to breed, were attacked by ‘vast super-colonies of Yellow Crazy Ants’

9. The expression of a baby lemur

Madagascar has 150 types of lemurs and most live the high life (up in the trees) or, like Bamboo Lemurs, eating their fill on the ground.

‘But this baby Sifaka has a hard life ahead of it,’ said Attenborough, about a forlorn-looking newborn who could only have been played by Woody Allen in the Pixar film.

‘He’s been born in the most arid and hostile corner of Madadgascar’s vast landscape, where it rarely rains making food and water hard to find.’

Perhaps his mother should think about moving you thought. In the meantime Ken Loach is going to make his new film about them.

High life: Madagascar has 150 types of lemurs and most live the high life (up in the trees)

10. A poor Fairy Tern trying to hatch her shattered egg

All human life was here, even in the animal kingdom: sex and violence, love and death, happiness and tragedy. In the Seychelles, a Fody bird hopped around eating other birds’ eggs – not even devouring them but puncturing them leaving the insides leaking out.

You could picture everyone on Gogglebox sobbing as they watched the heart-breaking sight of a pretty female Fairy Tern come back to continue hatching her egg, seemingly oblivious to the vandalism that the Fody had just inflicted.

‘She knows something’s not quite right,’ Sir David informed us. ‘But her drive to incubate is quite strong’ - something of an understatement as she gamely, poignantly, sat on the top of the egg with what would have been her baby dripping out of the bottom, down the branch underneath her. 

Heartbreaking moment: A Fairy Tern was seen trying to hatch her egg, which attracted the unwanted attentions of a Fody bird