Radio Times Top 40 TV Shows of 2016: 10 to 1

8. Planet Earth II (BBC1)

When David Attenborough wrote for RT about the reception for Planet Earth II, he noted the 10 million or so viewers who had tuned in each week. In fact, he was a few million out: consolidated ratings show one episode was watched by over 13 million of us – the kind of figures that used to be the preserve of soaps and reality TV. But that’s how much we all needed to escape into the natural world of a Sunday evening. Even if what we found there was the nightmarish sight of those mean racer snakes chasing baby iguanas, we watched the wild drama and were utterly gripped. David Butcher