TV Guide Yesterday Monday

David Attenborough focuses on animals living in deserts. Cameras explore the dry Atacama of Chile, where guanacos survive by licking dew off cacti, and capture the rare sight of wild camels eating snow to stay hydrated on Mongolia's Gobi plains. In the rocky Namibian desert, elephants desperately search for food and lions wander the wilderness hunting oryx

Camera crews follow the activities of wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctic, including an emperor penguin colony's nine-month migration across sea ice to its breeding ground. The team also takes aerial and underwater shots to capture humpback whales feeding and tracks a male polar bear as it swims 100km to find new ice from which to hunt seals

Michael Portillo explores New South Wales by train, travelling 570 miles from Sydney to the mining city of Broken Hill. He explores the origins of Sydney as a penal colony, visiting the Hyde Park barracks where many of the first convicts were housed. He also tours the city's iconic opera house, and volunteers for the lifesaving club at Bondi Beach. In the Blue Mountains, he learns about people's relationship to the land from his indigenous guide, before reaching Katoomba, where he rides the steepest railway in the world

The historian and broadcaster charts the development of the UK's rail network, from its beginnings as a primitive system of trackways for coal carts in the early 18th century up to the present day. Rapid industrial growth during the 19th century, coupled with the prospect of vast profits, drove inventors and entrepreneurs to develop steam locomotives, metal tracks and an array of daring tunnels, cuttings and bridges that created a nationwide system of railways in just 30 years. George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the model for future inter-city travel and his fast, reliable locomotive the Rocket began a quest for speed that has defined the modern world