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Wild Weather is a major BBC documentary exploring the extremes of the world's climate with the engaging presenter Donal MacIntyre. The four one-hour programmes focus on wind, wet, cold and heat, and explore how these produce hurricanes, monsoons, ice storms and tornadoes, as well as regulate the global environment. MacIntyre, best known for his investigative series MacIntyre Undercover (1999), travels the world, from beneath the North Pole to the saturated humidity of the Belise tropical rainforest. Bringing to mind the daredevil John Noakes from 1970s Blue Peter, MacIntyre skydives, is battered by a wild tunnel, frozen in an ice-box, subjected to a reservoir flood and endures a marathon across the Sahara. Survivors' accounts tell the stories of such disasters as Hurricane Andrew, a New York state snow storm and the flood of Britain's eastern coast in 1953. The intelligent use of computer graphics enhances clear explanations of the jet stream, ocean currents and other phenomena, in a series which is part geography lesson (but with a great teacher), part reality TV entertainment show. Occasional flash-cut editing and some inappropriate techno/drum & bass on the soundtrack will irritate viewers who remember life before MTV, but otherwise this is an excellent mainstream documentary series. --Gary S Dalkin
For anyone interested in weather and climate, this series will be fascinating. We Brits have always been obsessed with the weather, but now that we have global warming and an increase in wild weather all over the planet, who wouldn't be interested in the sort of environmental drama that can kill you if you're not prepared? I've watched these programmes several times now - on TV and on the DVDs - and I never tire of them. Quite apart from the tidal wave of information presented here, there's a barrage of beautiful scenery, storm and CGI images - and even the music is very good (apart from the odd "boom chuka boom chuka boom boom boom" and "tika tika tar, tika tika tar" that, for no reason that has ever been adequately explained to me, seem to mar almost ever modern documentary, making subtitles very useful indeed from time to time). Donal MacIntyre is excellent in the role of mad adventurer/presenter. He gets his kit off at every opportunity to imperil and expose his poor body to the elements. I was filled with admiration and sympathy in turns. When he stands in a freezer at -18 degrees centigrade for half an hour, wearing only sandals and shorts, subjecting himself to quite severe hypothermia and showing signs of real physical distress, I shiver along with him as the cold seems to pour from the TV screen into my living room. Doctors and scientists explain the physiological changes that happen to the body when it overheats or loses too much heat, and how these changes lead to damage and even death. Meteorologists and climatologists explain where the weather comes from and what causes the climate to change. It's quite comprehensive and conveyed in good, plain English. My one, tiny niggle is that Donal consistently refers to the Arctic as the "Artic" (short for 'articulated lorry' I thought). Ah well. Nobody's perfect.

We don't often see the most dramatic weather here in Britain, but that could change. Already we're getting more floods and more heat. Even that's caused substantial damage and misery. But if you want to see what the weather is really capable of - if you want to see just what kind of destruction the weather has in its armoury, it's all here on these DVDs: howling winds, tornadoes, thunder and lightning, roaring seas, choking dust storms, ice storms, blizzards. Fabulous and alarming but never boring.