TV Tonight: Coma (New Series)

Coma starts tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.

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Having honed their survival strategies over millennia, mammals have evolved to be masters of the cold. In this episode, we journey across the globe, exploring a frozen world, from icy seas to snow-capped mountains and meet the unique mammals that call them home. For most, the cold is a killer. But for mammals, with their unique physical traits like warm thick fur and rich nourishing milk, and remarkable behaviours like hibernation, conquering the cold is possible.

We begin our journey on the Arctic islands of Svalbard, where polar bears, synonymous with this cold archipelago, dominate this remote frozen world. But as their world warms, and the frozen seas that are their hunting grounds disappear, they are being forced to find new sources of food. For the first time, we follow a polar bear hunting on land as it heads high up into the mountains in a rarely seen long-distance pursuit of Svalbard’s reindeer.

Mammals have been forced to adapt to the cold for millions of years. Whereas other species avoided the series of thick ice sheets that once covered a quarter of all land, mammals were able to survive the freezing conditions, and by adapting their behaviour, many are now completely at home in these inhospitable lands.

One land that has little changed since the last ice age is the tundra of northern Alaska. In this remote, hostile landscape, a mythical and rarely seen mammal endures: the wolverine. They rely completely on snow to survive, providing them meat from animals that have succumbed to the cold and dens in which to raise their young. Whilst other animals either flee or hibernate to avoid the coldest time of year, they stay active all winter, traversing the vast landscape in search of food. This privileged view reveals a surprisingly caring side of a highly elusive animal.

Knowledge can play a huge role in surviving the cold. Rather than roaming huge distances, some smart mammals will return annually to places they know will provide them with food. In Canada’s northern Yukon, a unique community of bears has been passing knowledge down the generations of a special ice-free river. While most bears are already hibernating, this late flowing river allows chum salmon to spawn into the winter months, giving the bears an opportunity for one last feast before hibernation that they simply cannot resist.

Mammals’ ability to hibernate is a clever way to avoid winter, and deep underground in an abandoned mine, little and big brown bats are well into their hibernation. But not all stay asleep. One sneaky bat wakes in order to mate while the rest of the colony sleeps on.

Bringing newborns into a world of snow and ice has many challenges, but mammals’ unique ability to produce fat-rich milk allows harp seal mothers to have one of the shortest weening periods of all. In just 12 days, off the coast of Greenland, they race to fatten their pups to independence as the icy nursery melts around them.

Far above sea level, the remote Kluane Mountains of North America support the largest ice field outside the poles. In this rugged landscape of rock and ice, pika, a relative of the rabbit, patiently wait for summer. Having stayed awake all winter, surviving on food they collected last year, once summer does return, they will all have just a few weeks to harvest nearly a year’s worth of food before the winter lockdown begins again. But storing your hard-earnt supplies all in one place comes at a risk if you can’t trust your neighbour.

Averaging 4,000 meters above sea level, the thin air of the lofty mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China struggle to retain much heat at all. As a result, life here always feels cold. Snow leopards are the top predator and have lived here for millions of years, but recently their lives have become linked with humans and the domestic yak they herd. It’s too good an opportunity to ignore. But through a community initiative, they have found a way to live alongside each other, even when the yak are taken by the leopards.

Back at sea level, on the shores of Canada’s Hudson Bay, for mammals specialised for life in the cold, a warming world is now the biggest challenge. Here, arctic fox and polar bears wait together by open water where there should be ice. For arctic foxes living here, as food ashore runs out, they would normally move and follow the polar bears onto the ice in order to scavenge off the bears’ kills. But as the winter freeze, and arrival of the ice is delayed, the bears cannot hunt, and life becomes more and more desperate. This has led to the foxes resorting to cannibalism, desperately fighting with each other to feed on the unfortunate foxes that have succumbed to hunger.

Devoted family man Simon (Jason Watkins) finds himself at a breaking point as his neighbourhood falls victim to the terrorising behaviour of a group of teenagers, led by menacing 17-year-old Jordan (played by rising star Joe Barber) and his questionable companions.

Simon and his wife, Beth (Claire Skinner) are desperate to move their young daughter to a safer area away from the threatening atmosphere. When Simon’s frustration reaches its peak and he confronts Jordan outside his own home, a split-second decision changes everything.

The cast also features David Bradley as Simon’s quiet grumpy neighbour Harry, Jonas Armstrong as Jordan’s dangerous father Paul, Kayla Meikle as determined DS Kelly Evans, and David Mumeni as Simon’s untrustworthy boss Jimmy.

About Episode 1

Mild-mannered family man Simon Bamford is at breaking point, juggling his mortgage, redundancy and the gang of youths terrorising his street.

One night, troublemaking teen Jordan brings danger to his doorstep. Simon finally confronts the 17-year-old youth, but when Jordan continues to provoke him, Simon snaps and swings a wild punch. The young man falls back, banging his head on the curb. Panic sets in when Simon realises Jordan’s not breathing…

Simon is no murderer, and immediately starts CPR. The police arrive to find Simon desperately trying to keep the young man alive, and they presume he’s an innocent bystander. Simon plays along, explaining that he found the lad unconscious in the street and has no idea how he came to be here. With no witnesses to say otherwise, the police believe him. After all, Simon is a middle-class businessman with no previous offences and the young lad, Jordan Franklin, is well known as a gang member. When DS Kelly Evans questions Simon at the scene, he begins to spin a deeper, darker web of lies.

Earlier that day, Simon installed a ring doorbell in an attempt to protect his family from the local gang of youths. Naively, he goes to the hospital to check on Jordan. DS Evans is surprised to see Simon there, but he quickly covers, explaining that he’s collecting his wife, Beth, a nurse at Haverbridge Infirmary. What DS Evans doesn’t know is that Beth is not on shift.

Simon’s heart sinks when Jordan’s parents, Paul and Anna arrive, demanding news about their son. Paul is a threatening figure, not someone you would want to mess with, let alone Simon. Things worsen when Paul turns out to be a local career criminal and takes an interest in Simon. Meanwhile, Simon is hailed a local hero. But there was someone else watching that night…