Gorilla Family and Me, BBC2 - TV Review - Gordon Buchanan bedded down with Earth's largest primates

Gordon Buchanan displayed that potent mix of passion, bravery and a wee bit of madness that makes him an entertaining presenter

Call of nurture: baby Mwira and his mother, Mwinga

“Ideally, I could snuggle right up next to Chimanuka,” said cameraman Gordon Buchanan in Gorilla Family and Me as he prepared to bed down with a family of rare Grauer's apes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even he had the sense to keep a safe distance from the 200-kilo patriarch who presided over the 23-strong troupe, but only just.

This was another of Buchanan's Insert Dangerous Animal Here and Me series. The stand-out moment of the run so far was when he filmed a hungry polar bear from the “safety” of a gappy Perspex box in Norway. He was on slightly safer territory here – gorillas are herbivores in the main – but he still displayed that potent mix of passion, bravery and a wee bit of madness that makes him an entertaining presenter. And by madness, I mean an all-consuming drive to show us animals in their natural habitats.

It didn't seem to bother Buchanan that that meant the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that the Foreign Office still advises avoiding. We heard that it's hoped that allowing these cameras in will encourage more tourism. This was a good advert – there were some spectacular shots of mountainous scenery and the area's other distinctive creatures. Though this was the Gordon and the Gorillas show. “Knowing a large, potentially aggressive male is near is thrilling, but scary,” Buchanan breathed at one point

Watching the clever, clever animals making nests, finding food and nurturing young up-close was indeed thrilling. As was the rivalry between Chimanuka and his brother that threatened to boil over. Their story was reminiscent of big cat brothers Scar and Mufasa in The Lion King. There's another instalment next week. Let's just hope it doesn't go the same way as the Disney classic.

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