Television: Pick of the day

Peter Conchie
Wednesday 09 February 2005 01:02 GMT
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DOCUMENTARY Viagra: the Hard Sell (10pm BBC2)

When drugs multinational Pfizer was testing a new treatment for angina, subjects reported a pleasant, if unexpected, side effect. Heart disease's loss was the male libido's gain, as the drug was swiftly reinvented as Viagra. Pfizer's share price almost doubled in the year after Viagra's launch and, to broaden its appeal, the company enlisted the help of people as diverse as former US presidential candidate Bob Dole and football legend Pele. It's a fascinating history of an iconic drug, although there are too many contributions from people of your grandparents' vintage testifying to its success. "It was like going from diesel to five-star," one notes.

FOOTBALL England vs Netherlands (7.30pm BBC1)

Putting Shaun Wright-Phillips, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney (above centre) up front in England's friendly against the Netherlands tonight is a bold riposte by manager Sven Goran Erikkson to claims that his weakness is his conservatism.

ARTS Absolute Rubbish with Jonathan Miller (7.15pm Five)

This engaging profile of the cultural polymath Jonathan Miller (above) introduces his current muses, these being items of scrap metal that he angle-grinds and welds into shapely mutations.

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