From the legendary Piranhas of the Amazon, through to Killer Catfish and Freshwater Sharks, this rip-roaring ride through the dark side of nature mixes action and adventure with mysteries, edge of the seat chase and a battle of wills between man and almost supernatural beasts. These killers lurk in the serpentine waterways all over the planet, mooching murderously underwater, growing to truly awesome sizes. Searching around the world for these amazing creatures and sorting hard scientific fact from fisherman's tales and local folklore, Wade shows us that in some waters, you really just should stay on dry land...

River Monsters was originally shown on ITV1 between 12 November and 31 Dec 2009. The show is presented by biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade as each week he looks into another urban myth to see whether certain water based creatures have the reputation, as killer fish, they truly deserve.

The first episode, Piranha, was possibly my favourite in the collection - mainly because it had the best balance of urban myth mixed with Wade's dangerous experiments and a real surprise for those convinced that piranha are vicious creatures.

Wade starts the episode recalling an old story he heard about a bus crashing into a river and the passengers being eaten by piranha. He eventually discovers that the story is partly true, but there's no real proof that piranha actually killed any of the victims. He then takes us to a part of the Amazon that is piranha rich and to prove it he catches several rather quickly. Then to back up the scientific evidence, that piranha don't attack people, he jumps into the water. He then goes on to try and find out what the combination is that will make piranha attack. He places some of the fish in a small pool and starves them for a few days then adds a little blood into the water to see if there's a reaction. When there is a slight reaction, he adds some meat - which they devour. And, to prove they won't attack man, he climbs in there with them. There have been examples where piranha have attacked humans, but they seem to be protecting their young rather than looking for a feast. This episode also pays a rather nice shot-for-shot homage to Jaws.

Over the course of the next five episodes, Wade investigates alligator gar; European maneaters (the wels catfish); Amazon assassins (arapaima and cobra grande); Amazon flesheaters (piraiba, candiro and the candiro açù); and freshwater shark (Bull sharks which are the only sharks capable of living in freshwater - and are doing so more and more frequently).

The episodes are fairly formulaic and usually end up with Wade finally catching the prey he's after. Over the course of each episode the viewer gets a better understanding of some incredible beasts.

Possibly the most disturbing episode is Freshwater Shark. Most people are aware that sharks can attack in sea water, but few are probably aware that bull sharks (which kill more humans every year than great white sharks) can, and do, live in fresh water and are slowly populating rivers miles away from the sea.

It was also a little worrying to hear about candiro açù (in the episode Amazon Flesheaters) which are small fish which can bore into a human body and then quickly devour the internal organs.

I did have a few reservations about some of the foreign eyewitness accounts Wade investigates. Approached by an English film crew, it's very easy to believe that some people may attempt to spin a yarn in the hope that they will be paid for telling their tale.

Wade's enthusiasm also helps to make this show compulsive viewing. It's great to see that some of the myths are finally stripped away, even if a little sensationalism is used to beef the show up and keep the viewer watching to see - for example - whether Wade really was attacked and the creature drew blood. There is a great example of this where Wade proclaims: "Two of the fish I caught turned on me!" This isn't strictly true. One moved suddenly to make a break for freedom as Wade was releasing it and with the other, Wade panicked the second it started to move (even though he said he was going to stand his ground). He leapt out of the water with no indication that it had actually gone for him.

According to the show's official website there were seven episodes in the show's first series. So I was surprised to see that episode 2 (Killer Catfish) wasn't included on this DVD. A second series is currently planned and will be screened in spring 2010.

This is an excellent series, and one that any keen angler or wildlife fanatic will love.

8

Darren Rea