Travelling in a small helicopter is always exciting, but I shall never forget one remarkable trip, in which I looked up to see rocky walls all around, just a few feet beyond the rotor blades, and just below, white-hot molten lava. Our pilot had flown us right into the active crater of the Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii.

Kilauea is perhaps the most active volcano in the world, and has been erupting continuously for more than 20 years, but it is relatively benign and predictable. It behaves like an overflowing saucepan of molten sugar – dangerously hot, but not much of a problem as long as you keep out of the way. Over the decades it has buried 200 buildings, some cars, and several miles of road, but it is not explosively violent.

Some volcanoes just fume; some throw up fire-fountains; some overflow with molten lava; and some explode. The biggest volcanic explosion in recorded history happened in Indonesia, 800 miles north-west of Australia, on 10 April 1815, ten weeks before the Battle of Waterloo. The island used to be home for several thousand people, but when Mt Tambora blew up more than 90 per cent of them were killed immediately by the searing tides of scorching gas and dust, and the overall death toll was probably several hundred thousand, many of whom died of starvation.

The following year, 1816, came to be called ‘the year without summer’ because the dense clouds of dust from the eruption cut off the sunlight and caused global cooling; around the world summer temperatures were several degrees lower than usual, which cause massive crop failures as far away as America and Europe. The skies in the west were often curious colours, and it is said that some of Turner’s magnificent sunsets were inspired by the aftermath of Tambora. I do not accept the suggestion that Mary Shelley’s book Frankenstein had anything to do with the eruption; a more probable theory is that she had been talking to Andrew Crosse and other pioneers of the new-fangled electricity.

This programme is beautifully shot, and the scientists are clear and articulate, but it suffers from two major drawbacks: first the programme cannot decide whether it is about the fate of the local inhabitants or the effect of the global cooling. Second, the commentary prefers hype to evidence; it is doom-laden, repetitive, and scientifically inaccurate.