Humans use oxygen to burn fuels and release the energy which powers every function in every cell. This first programme will find out how this happens, even at the top of the world.
What fuels does the body need? How do we get them from the dinner plate to the cell? And what other things are there in the food apart from fuel?
Humans live in extraordinary places - from the middle of the Sahara desert to the frozen wastes of Alaska. So how can humans survive such extremes? And could you?
When the shark is honing in, you must swim for your life. When the soldier faces enemy guns, he must run to survive. Or sometimes, stand and fight. How does the body increase that energy delivery?
Are we all the same? Faced with the same perils, would we all cope just as well? And if not, is it down to luck? Or is there such a thing as the will to live?
Hugh Montgomery takes us on a journey to see how the human body has evolved over 4 billion years to become the extraordinary and complex machine that it is today. He also visits some of the most extreme environments on the planet to see how our bodies cope with being pushed to their absolute limit and welcomes guests into the studio who give first-hand experience of making it against the odds.