Devil in the driving seat
TIME to belt-up for another dose of life in the Faust lane, as English country girls, Carmen, Annie and Laura, continue to dally with the Devil in the driving seat.
If you saw the first part of Growing Rich (Pearl 9.45pm) last week, no doubt you're hooked, too. Fay Weldon's strange tale about, three girls from the back of beyond in East Anglia - well, Fenedge - who are fighting to escape their fate, makes for commendably different viewing.
The first episode saw Annie drowning in domestic torpor; Laura rebelling against marrying a sheep-farmer in New Zealand; and the stunning Carmen still fending off the advances of the Devil, who masquerades as ultra-cool chauffeur to Sir Bernard Bellamy (John Stride).
The one weak link in the drama is Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp (The Krays) as the Devil. He hasn't yet displayed the charisma necessary for the part - still the gals more than make up for him.
IN The Renegades (World 9.30pm, original running time 100 mins) Patrick Swayze (Ghost) leads a gang of reformed delinquents who act as a crime squad to the areas of the city that real cops won't visit.
This was made in the early 80s and looks it - the gang is terribly ethnically correct - and it was the pilot for a short-lived TV series. THE emphasis is on entertainment in Eye on Hongkong (Pearl 7.35pm). Spanish tenor Jose Carreras makes an appearance to reveal what it was like singing to hundreds of millions of people all around the world for the opening ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics last summer.
Gloria Wu talks to Connecticut-based band Steelheart about the unusual and very personal lyrics to their songs.
And, there's an interview with Ron Clements, director of the latest Disney blockbuster Aladdin, and Peter Schneider, president of Walt Disney Animation.
THE daily (almost) dose of wildlife looks first at the massive southern right whale, and second the humble puffin.
Following their over-intimate encounters with sharks last week, marine photographers Valerie and Ron Taylor get into more deep water (sorry), as they try to film the southern right whale off south Australia for Blue Wilderness (World 8.30pm).
The Taylors lend their support to several groups fighting for the protection of these rare creatures, who were nearly rendered extinct by whaling in the early 1900s.
From southern Australia head far north to the Shetland Islands for Wildlife Tales (World 9pm), which studies the tens of thousands of puffins which nest there each summer - at least they did before the recent oil tanker disaster.
EVIL comes disguised as a mop-haired clown in Stephen King's It (Pearl 8.35pm). No, it's nothing to do with a certain hamburger chain: this clown's a killer who is cheerfully bumping off children in small-town New England.
The local librarian immediately recognises the pattern, and contacts a group of his childhood friends with the warning ''It'' is back. They reunite to fulfil a 30-year-old promise to destroy the evil force the clown represents.
Ho hum . .
