World's Most Dangerous Roads is the best bit of motoring TV in ages

CONSIDERING I'M both a car nut and a self-confessed couch potato I find most motoring telly a bit hard to chew.

I've written about Top Gear before, which is by far my favourite car show but even I admit strays from being serious silly, often in the space of a single episode. Then there's the generic rubbish - usually on ITV or BBC Four - which are all directed by someone who deems that all motoring programmes must feature Driving In My Car at least once. It's Madness. Literally.

In fact, since the original Top Gear and the delightfully innovative Channel Four show Driven went west there's been surprisingly little to get revved up about. So I'm surprised that an all-too-short series that's just finished on BBC Two had me hooked.

World's Most Dangerous Roads sounds like the sort of horridly dull show you'd find lingering in the Discovery Turbo schedules but don't let the title put you off, because it's one of the best bits of Sunday night TV I've seen in a long time. The recipe's simple but suprisingly simple; get two go-getting celebs, send them to somewhere remote with a poor road safety record, stick them in a 4x4 and dial the tension up to 11. Well researched, packed with suspense and superbly produced, I reckon it's one of the best things the Beeb's done all year.

Admittedly, the sight of 'slebs swearing at a battered Nissan Patrol was always going to appeal to me but what's surprised me is how many non-petrolheads I know were watching it too, simply because it was a truly tense bit of television. By far the best bit was watching Hugh Dennis and Ben Fogle threading their Toyota Tundra along the narrowest of Peruvian mountain passes, crawling just inches from certain death as knackered trucks thundered past the other way.

If you liked that Top Gear special in Jeremy Clarkson had a similar near miss in Bolivia, you'll love World's Most Dangerous Roads.

It's just a shame that last Sunday's episode was the last of just three episodes, because this series was one that definitely deserved a longer run.

My advice? Catch it on iPlayer while you still can.