A CONFESSION. Whenever I hear of a new Attenborough series my heart sinks faster than a hippo in blancmange. Such is the esteem in which the good Sir is held, to say so is probably high treason, so keep it to yourselves.

Oh, I can swoon with the most ardent of fans about the awesome photography, and wang on forever about the timeliness of his warnings about eco-disaster, but sooner or later we get to the problem: the killing.

In the opening episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet (BBC1, Sunday), the first moment to look away came less than three minutes in when a big cat landed paws on its prey. We did not see the outcome – it was a montage of scenes to come in the seven part series – but I’ll wager the encounter did not end happily for the creature being pursued.

It is hard to settle back and enjoy the magnificent spectacles being conjured up because there is frequently a flipside involving death and peril. We watched Weddell seals born in Antarctica, for example, only for some to perish in a storm.

Worse was to come with albatross chicks, again left alone in a tempest and blown out of their nests. If they could not climb back in their parents would not recognise and feed them, thus ensuring their deaths. Cue more anxiety while a wee one eventually clambered in. “It’s safe,” said Attenborough, only to add, “for now”.

By the time we got to leopard seals picking off penguins like so many bobbing apples on Halloween, I was a hot mess of upset. I was not alone. Rolf the cameraman, who had spent some time with the penguins (he called them “gentlemen”), looked around their frozen home and said he only hoped such places could be preserved and the birds protected. With that he started to cry.

Of course death is part of life and it would be silly and false to sugar coat the lives of wild creatures, but the constant drive to make a drama out of events is becoming overwhelming and off-putting.

There were more tears before bedtime in The Great British Bake Off: The Final (Channel 4, Tuesday). Nobody died, but Steph’s twice-baked Stilton souffles were not even once-baked and looked like dods of porridge, and it was touch and go whether Alice’s parents would get back from a wedding in Dublin in time for the winner being announced. Not much of a hill of beans, but the programme milked the situations for all they were worth. Loved the baked goods (Steph’s souffles aside) but found the contestants and their dramas rather vanilla.

Coming along like some great bubbling antidote to sentimentality was the new Scottish crime drama Guilt (BBC Scotland, Thursdays/BBC2 Wednesday). Mark Bonnar and Jamie Sives play Tom and Jerry brothers Max and Jake. While coming home from a wedding one night the car the pair are in hits and kills a man. Rather than face the consequences, Max the scheming lawyer persuades his brother to cover up the incident.

If you thought for a minute about the likelihood of all this happening, Guilt would fall apart pretty quickly. But since it is the product of the brilliant Neil Forsyth, creator of Bob Servant and writer of Eric, Ernie and Me, there is not one dull moment in the entire, wholly enjoyable, hour. Savagely funny, bleak as the grave, looks terrific and with acting to match, this is the most impressive Scottish comedy drama debut since Tutti Frutti.

How Europe Stole My Mum (Channel 4, Thursday) was another pleasant shock, managing as it did to make Brexit laugh out loud funny. Seriously. Written by the comedian and actor Kieran Hodgson (Ian’s boyfriend in Two Doors Down) it began with the bold boy recreating a scene with his mother, played by Liza Tarbuck. Mum also had a confession to make: she voted Leave in the EU referendum. “Still, I don’t imagine it will change anything in our relationship, will it?” she said innocently.

Seconds later world war three had broken out between ma and her chick. Like Homer Simpson says, it’s funny cos it’s true. How many other families and friends have had such encounters, albeit, one hopes, without such scorching invective (“You racist, Chardonnay-guzzling old witch!").

Hodgson proceeded, with the help of Harry Enfield playing a librarian, to trace how the UK went from aspiring member of the European Economic Community to the frothing Brexiter of today.

Behind the fooling around there was that rare thing on television: an original thinker at work. He certainly explained Brexit better than any number of stodgy programmes or articles in the three years since the referendum. Perhaps he should be Prime Minister. Not if it took him away from the next series of Two Doors Down, though. That would be silly.