Pets - Wild at Heart, TV review: Not quite Planet Earth but plenty of fun facts from David Tennant

This was natural history film-making for the I Can Has Cheezburger? generation

(BBC)

This BBC show was a co-production with America's public broadcaster PBS, which is already fairly common on British telly (Sherlock and Downton are the same) and this week the BBC's factual department signed a new co-production deal with PBS. So expect to see a lot more films like Pets – Wild at Heart, a two-part look at how the wild habits of our domesticated pets linger even as they hunt for Dreamies with Chicken rather than field mice.

The fact that this feels like a US film with a British voiceover (by David Tennant) is given away slightly by one of the set-pieces being a dog walker taking a load of rowdy mutts through Times Square. Later, the owner of a chatty budgie is also American. But never mind. This may have been natural history film-making for the I Can Has Cheezburger? generation – look at the kitties and the bunnies! – but it was packed with fun facts nevertheless.

Did you know dogs sniff one each other's backsides because they can assess from the scent glands therein whether their doggy pals are healthy. Handy! Or bumsy even.

It's not quite Planet Earth, but if watching a hamster fly off a wheel in slow motion is your idea of a good evening in (mine certainly is) then who's complaining?