Radio Times: Review by:; Alison Graham

A sleek wild jaguar, its eyes full-beam headlights and its coat the colour of mud thanks to the eerie effects of being filmed by a thermal imaging camera, lopes along a Central American beach closely observed by a jaguar expert in a flimsy hide. The creature undulates towards the tiny tent of cloth. He is curious, he is deadly and he is just inches away.

It’s a breathtaking sequence (and, in the case of the jaguar expert, breath-holding) in a programme that’s full of tiny miracles. Like the spider who makes the spider equivalent of a manhole cover under which he hides for hours on end, waiting for dinner to pass by. And yet another spider who constructs a trapeze and a net in which to catch its unwary main course.

The Dark’s naturalists, including bug czar George McGavin, sit through endless drowsy vigils waiting for creatures of the night to appear. And when they do, the results are glorious.

About this programme

1/3. New series. Biologists and camera crews explore the wildernesses of South and Central America at night, discovering how wildlife changes when skies get dark. They begin with an expedition to the jungles of Costa Rica, where they encounter some of the world's deadliest nocturnal predators. Entomologist George McGavin searches for the net-casting spider, which has a distinctive method of catching its prey, while camera operator Justine Evans gets perilously close to a male jaguar and Gordon Buchanan discovers the remains of ruined temples.