Snow Cats and Me - BBC2

Gordon with snow cat cubs
(Image credit: BBC/Oak Island Films Ltd/Hello Halo TV)

Cameraman Gordon Buchanan heads into the wild for Snow Cats and Me

There are a lot of documentaries on telly right now that highlight the devastating plight of our planet’s wildlife, but two-parter Snow Cats & Me is actually surprisingly upbeat (Sunday, 8pm, see our TV Guide for full details).

A snow cat close up

Miaow! A snow cat close up

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan is spending a year in the snowy Russian wilderness helping to rescue four lynx that have been kept in captivity for years.

MORE: Gordon Buchanan on Animals with Cameras

The sight of two of the wild cats living in tiny, dirty cages as part of the lucrative fur trade is heartbreaking, but they’re soon seen scampering about the forest and the female, Koshka, even gives birth to two kittens.

Gordon's aim is to return them fully to the wild, but that’s easier said than done, as Gordon quickly discovers…

TV Times rating: *****