The new mini-series The Arrow (World, 8.30pm) begins with a disclaimer pointing out the programme and all its characters are fictional, and also hints there were real people and events that were not dissimilar to what we are about to see on screen.
This whets the appetite for an Oliver Stone-style docu-drama about the dark forces at work when a Canadian aviation company tried to build a revolutionary new plane in the 1950s.
But there was no Oliver Stone at the helm of this production, so instead we get a competent, well-constructed drama that relies on a familiarity with aerodynamics for excitement.
The story begins with a stony-faced general handing over impossible specifications required for a new plane to keep the Russians from whizzing over the North Pole and nuking Ontario.
All the aviation companies turn the job down as impossible. But Avro Canada has nothing to lose, and when the company's resident boy genius Jim is inspired by a piece of celery, they decide to build a triangular-shaped aircraft that is way ahead of its time.
Apart from an early, non-fatal crash, the design team stumbles forward by leaping from one miraculous new idea to another.
There is the celery enlightenment, when Jim realises planes do not need wings and tails as such.
