How many times a week are you jolted out of rubbish everyday reality to marvel at the beauty of life? Honestly?

To stop chasing your tail to plunge into a heartfelt expression of ‘whoa, life is amazing!’?

Not often enough, probably, unless you’re a child or an avid user of recreational drugs.

Television gets a lot of stick, but it is a portal to this powerful feeling... if you plug in to the right channels.

Prof Brian Cox whisked me – and probably many thousands of women – off to view life from another, dizzying perspective this week.

That’s not an easy feat when you’re knee-deep in nit lotion, washing and exhaustion. But, suddenly, something clicked during Human Universe (Tuesdays, 9pm, BBC2) and made it all worthwhile.

“If we are the only intelligent civilisation in the galaxy now, that makes us indescribably precious and valuable,” says Brian, in that dreamy Mancunian murmur. “We are the only island of meaning in an infinite sea of lonely stars.” Thanks, Brian: I probably won’t end up in space, but you’ve certainly done your duty cheering me up.

And then, there’s Life Story (Thursdays, BBC1, 9pm) which had the nation in tears as extraordinary Beeb camerawork zoomed in on ickle barnacle goslings tumbling off their nesting spot on a sheer Greenland cliff.

There is little praise that hasn’t already been lavished on David Attenborough – the granddaddy of the BBC’s national treasure chest, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less true. While most 88-year-olds would rather be indulging in a chocolate Hobnob by the fire, David is in among the action, grubbing down in South Africa to marvel at young meercats and lion cubs (which stand only a one in five chance of surviving their second birthday).

Another dose of nature that took my breath away was Wonders Of The Monsoon (BBC2, now on iPlayer and new series People Of The Monsoon splashes this Sunday at 8pm).

After having my tiny mind pretty much blown by Brian and Dave, I must admit, I was not expecting to be hit hard by this show, narrated by the gorgeously booming Colin Salmon. But, wonders do indeed await, accompanied by the stirring, starring music from Nitin Sawhney.

Now, essentially, this is a programme about rain, which might strike you as the last thing we soggy Brits need.

But, BBC documentaries are much like M&S adverts: it’s not just rain – this is epic, hammering droplets of life in places you didn’t even know existed, thrust at you with jutting, elemental glory.

On Mount Bromo, in Java, a party of islanders (as well as the intrepid cameramen) have trekked upwards to make sacrifices to the volcano gods.

You can see the volcano gods erupting billows of fire and rage into the sky in this land of ash and cinder, but that does not stop the gang from perching happily on the lip of the giant crater, lobbing lettuces and chickens into the abyss while even more intrepid blokes scramble about trying to catch the offerings in a net “for luck”.

But it’s not just the humans that take your breath away. In the monsoon-lashed habitats of our planet, the screen swoops in on flowers that are not so much plants as gaping, carnivorous vats of digestive juices waiting to grab a tree shrew perching for a sugary lick.

And, nothing is more sobering than the thought of being swallowed whole by a giant leech that is – literally – all mouth.

This trio of hard-hitting global documentary triumphs show that fact is indeed stranger, more fabulous, than fiction.

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