Thursdays, 7.30pm, ITV1
Ep. 2, Thurs 19th Nov: The Amazon river is known for containing some of the world’s most ferocious beasts. But the catfish family have bloodthirsty and varied methods of catching their prey. In this programme, biologist and extreme angler Jeremy Wade investigates if they are the Amazon’s biggest river monsters and whether tales of catfish swallowing people whole could be true.
Jeremy travels to Brazil to find out the truth behind a macabre tale of a fisherman’s death. Fearing accusations of murder, local fishermen took the corpse of a colleague to the police station in the exact state in which they found it; just a pair of legs protruding from the mouth of a vast catfish. Jeremy tracks down Seu Walmir, one of the witnesses to the event who explains how the fisherman jumped into the river to free one of the nets from a rock. He says, “Nothing more was seen until four hours later when this huge fish appeared on the surface…The fisherman was half inside the mouth of the fish, just the legs of the fisherman sticking out…They got it in and clubbed it to death. They left his body inside the fish and then went to Manaus as fast as possible.”
Find out how the story unfolds - Thursday at 7.30pm. Catch-up with all episodes in the series online in the ITV Player.
