Just in case you missed it
BY the time you read this, America's 27th Super Bowl is likely to be half over. The dedicated have been up since 6.50 am watching Pearl's live coverage of the American football spectacular between the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills.
Late risers need not despair, however, since two hours of highlights are being shown tonight (Pearl 9.45 pm).
This is the third straight year the Bills have reached the National Football League finals. Their two previous attempts have both ended in defeat and again this year bookmakers expect them to be the losing side - which should be enough incentive for themto pull out all the stops.
The Super Bowl is being broadcast from the Rose Bowl at Pasadena, where a 102,000-strong crowd will be watching.
To add to what is already an awesome spectacle, wacko singer Michael Jackson, 3,500 children and a massive fireworks display comprise the half-time entertainment.
* * * * IF American football leaves you baffled, the alternative is the first part of a joint British and Australian mini-series about the turbulent marriage of Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
He was destined to become the greatest actor of his time; she had won world renown for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind; together their passionate romance and marriage in 1940 seemed charmed.
Based on the Garry O'Connor book, Darlings of the Gods (World 9.30 pm) looks at the problems behind the perfect public image, beginning in 1945 when the couple were touring Australia with the Old Vic Theatre Company.
There, Leigh (Mel Martin) began an affair with young Australian actor Peter Finch, at the same time as her mental health started to deteriorate. Olivier (Anthony Higgins) could only look on as everything started to disintegrate.
The second and final part of the series will be shown next Monday.
* * * *THE strike by Cathay Pacific cabin crew has been the longest major labour dispute in Hongkong history and The Pearl Report (Pearl 7.35 pm) considers its implications for labour relations in the territory.
Host Peter Maize talks to business and labour leaders about the future of unions in Hongkong.
The programme also examines the future of Gurkha soldiers who are being left jobless because of cutbacks in military spending.
* * * * WORLD's current affairs programme Monday Monitor (8.30 pm) reports on the problem of medical waste, and whether it is being disposed of safely in Hongkong.
* * * * HEARD the one about the eulochon and the humpback whale? No neither had I, but they are the subject of Wildlife on One (Pearl 6.30 pm). Apparently the eulochon is a ''small and innocuous'' fish whose only moment of glory comes when it swims up Alaska's remote rivers to spawn. Unfortunately, it does so just when the humpback whale's getting a bit short on food - the result: carnage.
* * * * CHELSEA versus Sheffield Wednesday is the featured match in English Soccer (Pearl 12.15 am).