Channel 4 look at gay and lesbian animals

June 6, 2019

Telly Today: What television delights are in store this Thursday evening, June 6th? Well The Hotel Inspector returns, there’s a celebration of Robin Williams and Channel 4 has lesbian pugs and gay lions.

One to Watch: The My Gay Dog and Other Animals, Channel 4 at 9pm

Same-sex behaviour has been reported in more than 1500 species and was observed by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

But traditional evolutionary theory can’t explain the purpose of being gay, or why it might be an advantage. So what are the animals up to? This frank documentary shows pets and animals on farms in zoos, and in the wild, caught on camera indulging in same-sex behaviour.

A male dog persistently mounts another male dog, even when it’s presented with a female Labrador in season. At Twycross Zoo, the bonobos – great apes with complex social bonds – have evolved to make love, not war, using same-sex behaviour to defuse tension. And in Japan, female macaques, which have very high libidos, form exclusively same-sex relationships, while rejecting attention from heterosexual mates.

Male lions caught in the act together in Kenya provoked international controversy and hilarity when a Kenyan politician claimed that they had learned their ‘unnatural’ behaviour from gay humans. The lions didn’t know that, in Kenya, homosexuality is punishable with up to 14 years in prison.

The programme meets a commercial sheep breeder who knows that some rams are exclusively homosexual, and no good to his business. Pioneering scientists reveal the latest thinking about what’s going on and explain that you can’t separate so-called ‘dominance’ behaviour from ‘pure’ sexual interactions with a reproductive purpose.

Bisexual behaviour is common across a wide range of species. And world-leading British scientists, who believe that they are close to identifying the combinations of genes that underlie homosexual behaviour, explain why there may indeed be evolutionary advantages to being gay.

Channel 4 this evening look into the gay world of same-sex loving animals.

3%, streaming from today on Netflix

A post-apocalyptic thriller set in near-future Brazil, where a select few are allowed to join a privileged society after undergoing an intense and competitive process returns for its third series from today on Netflix.

A year has gone by since the last episode of the second run and the Shell, conceived as an alternative to the Offshore and the Inland, is established as a place where everyone is welcome. But a catastrophic sandstorm, along with a suspected malfunction, destroys its water and food supply. Threatened with hunger, villagers demand a Process to determine who deserves to remain in the Shell. What will it take for this new community to thrive?

Discovering Film: Robin Williams, Sky Arts at 9pm

The late Robin Williams was hilarious, energetic and could take emotions from joyful amusement to heartfelt sympathy in each and every role.

Tonight Sky Arts’ series Discovering Film takes a look at the career of Williams and the legacy he’s left us all. Starting with his early ventures into showbiz on the stand-up comedy circuit to his television break via 1950s-set sitcom Happy Days. By the late 1970s his Happy Days character had been given its own series with Mork and Mindy, however it was his years on the silver screen that made him a household name around the globe.

Feature movies included Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society, Mrs Doubtfire, Aladdin and Night at the Museums made Robin a huge box office draw in the 1990s and beyond. Be it a leading role or a supporting guest part. Although he was most well-known for utilising his frenetic comedy persona in roles, he later transitioned into dramatic parts such as in Good Will Hunting which won him an Academy Award.

The Hotel Inspector, Channel 5 at 9pm

Alex Polizzi is back with a brand new series to tackle some of her biggest challenges yet.

In the first episode, the Hotel Inspector is in Burnley, Lancashire to try and resurrect the failing fortunes of the Rosehill House Hotel. Owned for the past 25 years by John and run by his daughter Emma, they have cluttered the 31-room converted Manor House with tat and lost sight of who their customers are.

Recently, bookings have taken a sharp decline and to make matters worse mum Jacquie, once the life and soul of the hotel, has been forced to retire due to illness, leaving Emma to run the place alone. But John, a hard-nosed businessman, has plans to turn the hotel into flats—which doesn’t sit well with heart-on-sleeve Emma, who has fond memories of the hotel and whose livelihood depends on keeping the place going.

Alex thinks that a way to restore their fortunes is through functions, but turning the conservatory into a bespoke wedding venue pushes the family to their limits. Will Emma be able to handle her emotions when Alex delivers home truths?

Ambulance, BBC One at 9pm

Senior Paramedic Rich is on duty to support ambulance crews across the city centre for the 12-hour Friday night shift. As he scans the streets for his first job it isn’t long before he’s called to treat his first patient. A category one response is needed for a patient who is lying unconscious on the street because it is believed he has taken spice.

An hour into the shift and the team in control take another category one call – this time for a baby who isn’t breathing. As the parents are given lifesaving advice over the phone, paramedics Alice and Lauren are immediately dispatched, supported at scene by Rich. When the team arrive the premature baby is breathing, but they waste no time taking the baby to hospital. But before they get there the situation takes a turn for the worse and they are called on to give CPR.