Sudan: The Last Of The Rhinos
How do you give a mighty beast weighing several tons a mud wash? The answer, you might think, would be very, very carefully, but the main attraction in Sudan: The Last Of 
The Rhinos (Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm) is a charmingly easy-going character who’s as gentle as a pussycat, even as he towers over his fearless human keeper. Now tended with loving care in a wildlife conservancy in Kenya, Sudan is, at 43 years old, a distinguished elderly noble of the Savannah. He is also unique: the last male white rhino on the entire planet, and just possibly the salvation for his species, if all goes according to plan, with the assistance of the remaining two females.
If matters don’t work out, that would bring an end to five million years of history. That fear is sobering for anyone with the slightest affinity for nature, but the prospect is rendered all the more heartbreaking as we witness Sudan moseying across the grasslands in all his noble glory. His life has in every way been a long, long journey – wrested away from Africa decades ago, he was taken into captivity in a zoo behind the iron curtain – as we see in archive footage of him cavorting in the snow – before he was returned to his home continent.
The poachers have done for the rest of his kind: now the future of the white rhino rests upon Sudan. Let us hope that he leaves behind more than just a memory as his legacy.
NOT TO BE MISSED...
THE CELEBRITY CRYSTAL MAZE
(Friday, Channel 4, 9pm) Richard Ayoade deploys his dry, surreal wit as the host for this revival of the ineffably Eighties game show.
TRACEY BREAKS THE NEWS (Friday, BBC1, 9.30pm)
A new topical satire show with Tracey Ullman, featuring her impressions of Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Merkel and – for the first time – Theresa May.
THE HOTEL INSPECTOR (Tuesday, Channel 5, 9pm)
Alex Polizzi is back for a new series applying her business expertise, starting with a would-be boutique hotel on the north west coast.
The Rhinos (Wednesday, BBC2, 9pm) is a charmingly easy-going character who’s as gentle as a pussycat, even as he towers over his fearless human keeper. Now tended with loving care in a wildlife conservancy in Kenya, Sudan is, at 43 years old, a distinguished elderly noble of the Savannah. He is also unique: the last male white rhino on the entire planet, and just possibly the salvation for his species, if all goes according to plan, with the assistance of the remaining two females. If matters don’t work out, that would bring an end to five million years of history. That fear is sobering for anyone with the slightest affinity for nature, but the prospect is rendered all the more heartbreaking as we witness Sudan moseying across the grasslands in all his noble glory. His life has in every way been a long, long journey – wrested away from Africa decades ago, he was taken into captivity in a zoo behind the iron curtain – as we see in archive footage of him cavorting in the snow – before he was returned to his home continent.
The poachers have done for the rest of his kind: now the future of the white rhino rests upon Sudan. Let us hope that he leaves behind more than just a memory as his legacy.
NOT TO BE MISSED...
THE CELEBRITY CRYSTAL MAZE(Friday, Channel 4, 9pm) Richard Ayoade deploys his dry, surreal wit as the host for this revival of the ineffably Eighties game show.
TRACEY BREAKS THE NEWS (Friday, BBC1, 9.30pm)
A new topical satire show with Tracey Ullman, featuring her impressions of Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Merkel and – for the first time – Theresa May.
THE HOTEL INSPECTOR (Tuesday, Channel 5, 9pm)
Alex Polizzi is back for a new series applying her business expertise, starting with a would-be boutique hotel on the north west coast.