Andrew Marr’s Megacities @ 8pm Thursdays- BBC1- 7 out of 10

Regular readers of the TV reviewing part of this blog (all two of them) will know that I have something of a soft spot for Andrew Marr, despite the whole super injunction business, and a major soft spot for anything related with statistics and facts. I like them both because they make me feel smart.

Marr's latest series involves travelling to the world's 'megacities', those metropolises with more than 10 million people in them (there are 21 to put a number on it) and exploring how life works and how stuff happens in them. The latest episode was about safety and security from natural disasters and man made threats and the solutions we have come up with to combat them. Though when these two threats combine we are really stuffed; how do you combat a rioting mudslide for example?

Marr focuses on three cities mainly in this episode, these being Mexico City, London and Tokyo. Three cities, three contrasting sets of problems from kidnapping and murder to terrorism and earthquakes. In each city, the ways in which humans take on these problems are explored and practical demonstrations are given, like in a multi-cultural school of hard knocks.

Out in Mexico City, a place 500 kidnaps occur a month and where people are plucked from the streets or their cars, a couple of men have made money out of the whole thing and they are not kidnappers. First of all, an American fellow called Tom (ex-military so you can guess what he looks like) and some Mexican men with guns who unconvincingly act like kidnappers have set up an evasive driving school. Cue Marr learning the tricks of the trade like ramming a kidnappers car and if that fails, ram it some more.

Next up is a tailor specialising in clothing that looks normal but is, in fact, bullet proof. To prove it, he sticks one of his workers in a jacket and shoots him. Customer satisfaction is probably not an issue in his business. If the item of clothing fails, the chances of the victim/customer wanting a refund are pretty unlikely.

Onwards to London, where Marr becomes the most out of place man in the world whilst training in the ultra masculine field of riot policing. Although as it turns out, all the equipment makes anyone look big and 'ard (probably not me though). Later on, he joins an Urban Search & Rescue team on one of their training exercises. The Urban Search & Rescue team consist of some men and their dogs as it turns out, though they're very well trained I'm sure.

Finally, to Tokyo where an earthquake simulation machine is Marr's next challenge. The machine which will be familiar to anyone who watched Takeshi's Castle in the past, just a little bit more high tech. He then goes to a huge underground water storage facility designed if a typhoon strikes. The chamber resembles the Grand Hall in the Mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings. More facts are stated about how GIGANTIC the whole thing is.

All in all, it's basically Andrew Marr takes on a serious of challenges in some cities with some facts thrown in for good measure which is nice enough but the overall point is that human beings haven't really changed; our riot control is the same as the Roman legions techniques, Mexican wrestling crowds are like the masses at the gladiator fights at the Coliseum and the architectural skills behind Tokyo's Sky Tree being exactly the same as the building ideas behind temples that are 1000 years old.

Next week on the show, lots of shit cos it's about transport in cities and the waste the urban inhabitants produce, including Marr rooting through a bin for some Pepsi and a man in an old scuba suit lowering himself into some dodgy looking liquids. Tune in.