Extraordinary Animals, Five

9:50am Friday 4th January 2008

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CHANNEL Five proved it wasn't getting any less crazy (now it's a proper channel with good programmes and everything) by showing last night's Extraordinary Animals.

It told the intriguing and rather weird story of Skamp, a four-year-old Schnauzer who had correctly predicted the death of 58 residents of a nursing home over the last three years.

The Grim Reaper dog Skamp alerted staff by barking and then stayed with the patients until they passed away.

The documentary asked if this weird phenomena was pure coincidence or if there was a scientific explanation for the pooch's behaviour.

Who knows? But I do know one thing - if I were at that home I definitely wouldn't be falling over myself to stroke Skamp. I reckon he chews his way through their feeding tubes when no-one's looking!

Later on Five continued its animal magic with The Man Who Lives with Bears, which told the extraordinary story of Charlie Vandergaw who lives in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness where he survives alongside killer bears.

I bet the cameraman was quaking in his boots just filming Charlie defying nature by feeding wild bears from his back porch.

Channel Five may be getting more respectable with its documentaries, and some genuinely good programming (beats when it first started and only seemed to offer soft-core movies of a certain nature) but where it excels, if you ask me, is delving into subjects other channels just wouldn't touch.