The “Jungles” episode of Planet Earth has been the most gripping yet. The segment on cordyceps fungi shows that nothing Jeff VanderMeer has come up with in any way underestimates the bizarre abilities of our mushroom rivals for control of the planet. Thankfully they are currently engaged in an ongoing and seemingly endless war against our other principal rivals, the ants.

However, the film of the chimp war, and its cannibal aftermath, was for me one of the most dramatic and disturbing things I have seen on a wildlife program to date. Chimps are disturbingly like humans, in way too many aspects of our behavior.