In the first series of Dynasties, penguins offered comedy and chimps familiarity, lions brought majesty and hunting dogs, novelty. With elephants and cheetahs to come, it was a brave but striking move to launch this second series, Dynasties II (BBC One), with pumas. Not for nothing did David Attenborough (the dominant male of wildlife broadcasting restricting himself to voice-over) refer to them as “ghosts of the mountains”.

There was something undeniably otherworldy about the life of Rupestre and her four cubs. Living by a lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes, their surroundings felt unsettlingly empty aside from occasional prey (this week’s fall guys: the guanaco) and predators in the form of rival females. It made palpable their knife-edge struggle for survival, although Rupestre’s life seemed less primal than strategic: knowing when to beat a tactical retreat from a foe, when to opt for goading over head-on offence, when to prioritise safety over food.

The storytelling was slick and accomplished, and seldom felt forced, the anthropomorphism given a respectable gloss by the avoidance of cliché in Attenborough’s wise voice-over – although Rupestre’s wistful glance back at her family as she left them to fend for themselves did feel concocted in the edit. Even so, Dynasties had drama surpassing its near namesake: Joan Collins and Linda Evans never had catfights like these.