Radio Times: Review by:; David Butcher

Each week Brian Cox has pursued his argument across a different part of the world and, for his finale, the backdrop is Mexico. Except it’s more than a backdrop because Cox adapts his story – about what ingredients make our world the only habitable planet we know of – to fit the places he visits. The connections sometimes feel stretched but the exotic locations add a sense of poetry, and the millions of monarch butterflies at their breeding grounds (rapidly becoming a natural history staple) are always an amazing sight.

Meanwhile, the nitty-gritty of the science involves things like capillary action and surface tension and the special polar properties of water molecules. And a very angry beetle.

About this programme

5/5. Professor Brian Cox considers what it is about Earth that makes it a home for life and asks what ingredients were necessary to transform this once barren planet into the world as it is today. He reveals that a rare chain of events combined with the power of life itself have made it unique in the cosmos.