Mountain respect; PORTRAIT OF OUR PLANET.

Byline: BY ROZ LAWS

IT really is the greatest show on Earth. The ultimate portrait of our planet - an amazing, breathtaking new series for which we're in danger of running out of superlatives.

Planet Earth (BBC1, Sunday) is the best natural history series ever, combining the knowledge of narrator Sir David Attenborough with stunning photography.

Four years in the making, this is Earth celebrated as never before, from the world's greatest rivers and gorges to the highest mountains, from caves to vast deserts. The cameras capture mass migrations of animals - a million caribou as they trek across Arctic wastes, hundreds of elephants in the Kalahari Desert and 400,000 snow geese on the wing on American tidal salt marshes.

But there are intimate moments too, like a mother polar bear playing with her two tiny cubs. And one second of high-octane action, when a great white shark leaps out of the water to capture a seal, is slowed down 40 times for us to marvel at the technique.

The series is first to capture high-quality, clear, aerial shots of the summit of Everest, despite one of the cameramen suffering from altitude sickness.

Planet Earth also shows us snow leopards running fullpelt down an almost vertical slope in pursuit of a mountain goat, and Indonesia's crabeating macaque monkeys, who have taught themselves how to deep-sea dive and hold their breath underwater.

This is must-see television to make us really appreciate our wonderful world.

CAPTION(S):

NARRATOR: David Attenborough