Sunday Night: July 28

Making a start on her expanded primetime role, Melissa Doyle will host Sunday Night this weekend as Chris Bath is on leave.

Charlie’s Angels
Leading neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo is undertaking a different kind of lifesaving mission in the jungles of Borneo. A chance encounter with a Zen-like orang-utan on a family holiday sparked his passion for saving these peaceful creatures from the brink of extinction. Greed is driving a terrible environmental disaster, as the orang-utans’ habitat is destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. Now, Teo returns to Borneo to visit with Birute Galdikas, a conservationist who has been living side by side with orang-utans in the jungle for over 40 years. Her sanctuary is a paradise for the animals, as Teo discovers when he pushes a wheelbarrow full of adorable baby orang-utan babies to their play date at the sanctuary’s jungle gym. Amidst the incredible encounters, we find fresh hope for these animals – Sunday Night’s cameras are there as for the big moment. See what happens when the cuddly creatures are released back into the wild.

Deadly Obsession
Inside this secret cult-like religion, in bizarre renegade churches, worshippers believe in a super power. They are convinced the Bible has commanded them to hold deadly snakes. Every sermon could very quickly become their last. If bitten by the poisonous creature, they refuse hospital treatment, believing God will decide their fate. It’s an ancient Pentecostal tradition, and one that was dying out – but one young preacher is determined to bring it back. In this incredible story, Sunday Night was granted rare access inside the church so few people ever get to see. We follow Andrew Hamblin as he hunts for snakes, preaches with them, shirks the law and flirts with death at every turn. In each service, rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths are taken from their wooden boxes as believers cradle them in their arms, press them to their foreheads and dance with them. For the first time, our cameras are inside.

Alex Perry
He’s the man famous the world over for being able to dress any woman and turn her into an object of beauty and desire. Alex Perry is flamboyant, funny, full of fire and best known on TV for wearing sunglasses on his shaved head. The son of Greek migrants, this barrel chested designer with the sharp tongue is perceived by many as gay. But in this revealing and star-studded profile PJ Madam discovers the truth about Alex Perry, and Sarah Murdoch and Megan Gayle tell us why he’s the king of the catwalk. But the “tough guy” of fashion has a very soft side, and on Sunday Night, see the one question that leads Alex Perry to breakdown while the cameras are rolling.

Sunday, July 28 on Channel Seven at 6.30pm.