At one and a half times the size of the United States, it has a year round population of only 800 people. Three quarters of the world's fresh water envelops it in a layer of ice so thick it conceals mountain ranges as vast as the Alps. And with temperatures below seventy degrees centigrade and winds of 120 mph, Antartica is the coldest, loneliest place on Earth.

But it is also a place of majestic beauty which can support astonishingly rich and varied forms of wildlife. Presented by David Attenborough, Life in the Freezer reveals incomparable standards of natural history filming to trace Antartica's seasonal cycle from the long winter months when the formation of ice almost doubles its surface area, to the brief summer when the race to breed really heats up.

Three quarters of the world's fresh water envelops it in a layer of ice so thick it conceals mountain ranges as vast as the Alps

Antartica, natural history, climate, David Attenborough