LAURA CARTLEDGE Life's like That...Now it's time for the Ten O'clock News, not time to hit the clubs

However having flown back to the nest, 10pm marks the time to turn to BBC for the news and argue over whose turn it is to make the Horlicks.

Of course not all television viewing runs like clockwork in our house – football makes mum fall asleep while anything featuring Gok Wan causes my dad to promptly pull a newspaper out of thin air and hide, with a sigh and a tut, behind it.

We certainly have different tastes, however Human Planet is one programme guaranteed to unite us in open-eyed, jaw-dropped amazement. The eight-part series has so far taken us to the depths of the oceans where we witnessed the world of the Pa-aling fishermen who dive down to 40 metres, placing their lives in a tangled web of pipes fuelled by a diesel engine – a feat which had us holding our breath, too.

The second week we went to the desert where a three-day camel ride just to find water showed how life or death was reliant on being able to locate a single tree in the sandy expanse – a revelation which was enough to give me the strange sensation of feeling guilty for my plumbing.

The third programme, and probably my favourite to date, transported us to the Arctic. Not only did I find out that the mythical looking narwhal, a whale with a hint of unicorn, was actually real, but I saw people risk life and limb by going underneath the perilously-balanced sea ice to harvest the seabed, all for something we can get at the supermarket, mussels.

Week four took us to the jungle – where honey collecting and house building was taken to dizzying heights before we swooped to the mountain tops for the fifth week and witnessed hunting by eagle. And tonight we will be heading into the grassland (BBC ONE 8pm).

Not only do you get to see it all from the comfort of your sofa, free from frightening conditions and miserable mosquito bites, but seeing the way other people live makes you feel grateful for the sofa.

And, after a hard day it is nice to look outside your own bubble and realise, that no matter what, our planet is an amazing place.