What’s on TV – 27 July 2019

25

Words:

Hannah Davies, Ian MacEwan

Photos:

Alamy, BBC, Getty, ITV

The world’s largest ever wildlife survey

will reveal if the big cats are heading for extinction

Burning less bright...

Tiger numbers

have plummeted

Finding their

cherries...

Cherry and

Gregg

What’s on

TV

Gregg’s dream job!

H

e’s famous for his

sweet tooth as a

judge on cookery

competition MasterChef,

so when Gregg Wallace

was sent to see how

cherry Bakewells are

made in the latest series

of Inside the Factory, the

former greengrocer was

in seventh heaven!

‘We used to eat them as

kids,’ says Gregg, 54, who

co-presents the show,

now in its fifth series,

with Cherry Healey and

historian Ruth Goodman.

‘You’ve got buttery pastry,

you’ve got frangipane

[sweet almond filling], jam

and a load of icing sugar

• it’s a beautiful thing!
  Over this series, Gregg
  will also visit factories
  where waxed jackets,
  croissants and mattresses
  are produced. All of them
  boast remarkable
  high-tech
  machinery,
  but he was
  surprised to
  find there is

still one job that requires

the human touch at the

bakery where 250,000 Mr

Kipling cherry Bakewells

are made every day.

‘They put the cherries

on by hand! I mean, what?’

he says. ‘It’s ludicrous! But

a gloriously messy job!’

Seeing so many tasty

tarts on the production

line, Gregg admits he

gave into temptation.

‘I forgot myself and

picked one up off the line,

which is a cardinal sin,’ he

says with a chuckle. ‘If I’d

have been in

there any

longer, I’d

have come

out twice

the size!’ n

NEW FACTUAL

Inside the

Factory

Tuesday, 8pm BBC2

Th ld’ l t ildlif

i

Th ld’ l t ildlif

Save the tigers!

E

very single week, two tigers

are killed by poachers, while

fewer than 4,000 are thought

to be left in the world today.

Once found in 30 countries, in

the past two decades tigers have

become extinct in Cambodia and

are close to being wiped out in

Laos, Vietnam and China.

Now, almost 60 per cent of the

world’s remaining tigers live in

India and the country is battling to

save its national icon with a count

of its tiger population to see if

conservation efforts are working.

‘The tiger is being forced to

scrap for its survival,’ says Joanna

Lumley, who narrates this one-off

special. ‘Almost everywhere else

conservation efforts have failed. If

India has failed too, it could be the

last we see of the tiger in the wild.’

Joanna reveals how thousands

of rangers are fanning out across

the country to gather photographic

and other evidence, including paw

prints, droppings and signs of kill.

Meanwhile, tiger expert and former

Springwatch presenter Martin

Hughes-Games follows their

progress from the ground.

‘It’s a mammoth task across

500,000 square kilometres of

extremely diverse landscape,’

says Joanna. ‘Around 30,000 tiger

images are isolated, then the team

uses special software to identify

individual tigers from their stripes.’

Bad news

When the first results come in, it’s

not good news. One tiger reserve,

Buxa, in north-east India, has lost its

entire population. At the last count,

India had 2,226 tigers in total, so

what will the final number be?

‘The early results have dealt a

devastating blow,’ says Joanna. ‘The

tiger’s fate hangs in the balance.’ n

NEW FACTUAL

Counting Tigers:

A Survival Special

Tuesday, 9pm ITV

Keeping count...

Narrator Joanna

Gregg Wallace samples exceedingly

good cakes at a Mr Kipling factory

aays