Natural World: Wild Harvest (BBC2)

Rome (BBC2)

YOU don't have to travel to foreign lands to find remarkable wildlife. Natural World discovered plenty in Britain's countryside - or rather those species that haven't been driven out by modern farming methods.

Some have forgotten that not only does the countryside provide food but also a home for some of our wildlife.

Over the past 50 years many once-common species have struggled to survive because of intensive farming. We've lost more than half our skylarks, the dormouse has vanished from six counties and grey partridge are down by nearly 90 per cent.

Wild Harvest offered gorgeous pictures of the countryside and its creatures as well as hope that matters are improving. One farmer reported that migrating birds were returning with the comment: "How the news got to Africa that we've gone organic I don't know".

Now there are environmental stewardship schemes, offering a chance to farm in a way that helps wildlife. All fascinating stuff but dull compared to the countryside being laid to waste in the expensive epic series Rome where Julius Caesar was busy coming, seeing and conquering.

Brattish Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII's gift of a jar didn't please Caesar, mainly because it contained the severed head of Pompey. "I'm going to make him a body with moving arms and legs and do a mime show with real animals and everything," said Ptolemy, a Cameron Mackintosh in the making.

Caesar was quietly confident that having conquered Gaul, he could handle a small boy. Cleopatra looks like being a bigger challenge. She's a sex-mad drug addict whose gift would be far more interesting than an old head in a jar.

Both she and the desert in which she's travelling are hot, or "it's as hot as Vulcan's dick" as Titus Pullo put it.

Cleo's certainly impressed by his swordsmanship as he sees off assassins sent to kill her. "She wants me badly. You should have seen me when I did that Nubian - wet as October," said Titus, turning weather forecaster.

She sent a servant to find her a man. "Madam commands you enter her," said her handmaiden - and she wasn't talking about going into the tent. Titus did as instructed, telling his friend he was "only obeying orders - and bloody good orders too".

Rome remains at its best when it's a romp. As soon as it tries to be serious, it comes a cropper.