More bad news from corporate America. Barbie dolls, it seems, are in crisis. The earnings of Mattel, the company that makes them, have slumped 73 per cent this year, while sales of Barbie dolls in the US are down 15 per cent. This, apparently, is the result of what marketing folk call “KGOY”, or “Kids Getting Older Younger”. A self-respecting 6-year-old girl today thinks that Barbie dolls are distinctly uncool, preferring instead Bratz, her slutty rival made by MGA. The Money Programme delivers a brave report from the bitchy world of fashion dolls.

ESCAPE FROM . . . A BRIDGE TOO FAR
Five, 7.30pm

The story of Operation Market Garden — the disastrous attempt in September 1944 to capture the bridges between Germany and the Netherlands — has become the stuff of legend. Less well known is how hundreds of paratroopers managed, with the help of the Dutch Resistance, to evade capture for months behind enemy lines. Airey Neave, who himself escaped from Colditz, worked with MI9 to organise Operation Pegasus, which succeeded in getting 138 soldiers to safety. David Saul, once more, draws attention to acts of courage that might otherwise be lost in the footnotes of history.

THE LONG FIRM
BBC Two, 9pm

Tonight’s episode is especially memorable owing to an astonishing performance from Phil Daniels. He plays a small-time drug dealer, a repulsive little rodent who served time with Mad Harry in HMP Winchester and witnessed his breakdown. “Harry must be desperate sticking up for a scumbag like me,” he says. “He must need the company.” Daniels plays the role like a malodorous version of Rigsby, his features fixed in a permanent scowl of spite and self-loathing. The acting throughout the series has been exemplary, but this performance is off the scale.

MEDICAL MYSTERIES
BBC One, times vary

The film Lorenzo’s Oil suggested that the oil discovered by Augusto Odone (played by Nick Nolte) was a miracle cure for adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), the rare genetic illness that destroys its victims. It transpired that this ending was overly optimistic; for boys suffering from the advanced condition, the oil had no effect. Nevertheless, a later clinical trial showed that boys carrying the ALD gene and given Lorenzo’s Oil stood a 40-50 per cent better chance of escaping the illness. As Augusto’s daughter, the writer Cristina Odone, says in this emotional film: “I don’t think the words ‘Give up’ are in my father’s vocabulary.”

Satellite, cable and digital

FLIGHTPATHS TO THE GODS
UKTV History, 9pm

Another chance to see this absorbing documentary following Dr Tony Spawforth to the desert of south Peru to find and decipher the giant geometrical shapes in the sand known as the Nazca lines. In 1989 Erich von Daniken published Chariots of the Gods, which went on to become a bestseller, arguing that Man’s belief in God came from ancient contact between aliens and humans, and that the Nazca lines were runways built for alien spacecraft. Spawforth debunks the myth in some style, taking a much more credible view — that the Nazca people made the shapes themselves to attract the attention of their gods and bring good luck.

NEWLYWEDS
MTV, 10pm

MTV’s “reality” series following the ditzy American pop bimbo Jessica Simpson and her long-suffering but hardly any brighter husband Nick Lachey offers a glimpse into the world of airheaded LA. Jessica’s best friend Casey (another blonde similarly unencumbered by brains) has moved into the palatial marital home in the capacity of PA, causing much hilarity for the girls and a long-running bad mood on Nick’s part. Will it cause a rift? Do we care? This is The Osbournes-lite.

ANOTHER SUNDAY AND SWEET FA
BBC Four, 11pm

BBC Four’s tribute to Jack Rosenthal, the writer who died last month, continues with his 1972 television play about an overly fussy football referee (David Swift) struggling to control a Sunday league game between the local rivals Parker Street and Albion.

GABRIELLE STARKEY

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