TV previews: Horizon: Eat, Fast And Live Longer | Mastermind | Top Of The Pops

Published on 05/08/2012 00:00

This week Aidan will be watching …

PICK OF THE WEEK Horizon: Eat, Fast And Live Longer

BBC2, Monday, 9pm

Last seen probing his intestines with a teeny camera – and the time before that trying out a revolutionary fitness regime requiring just three minutes exercise per week – Michael Mosley is on a mission to explore every new theory on how we can stay healthy and live longer. This one isn’t strictly new, rather a fresh take on an ancient idea. He joins the crowds cheering on the 38,000 runners in the London Marathon – 7,000 of whom are, like him, in their fifties. Mosley has no intention of becoming a pavement-pounder and is far more interested in how Fauja Singh is able to participate at the age of 101. Thankfully he walks a fair bit of the way, allowing the presenter to quiz him on the secret of his great longevity. “Smaller portions,” comes the reply. So Mosley decides to fast, for three whole days.

BEST QUIZ

Mastermind

BBC2, Friday, 8pm

Specialist subject? Mine would be Fawlty Towers which, annoyingly, is one of the picks to feature in the first of this new series so presumably I cannot compete this year.

“Sydney Opera House? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest, sweeping majestically… ?” I’m telling you, that handsome cut-glass bowl should be mine!

BEST MUSIC

Top Of The Pops: 1977

BBC4, Wednesday, 7.30pm

An utterly gripping juncture in this archive dredge as the loon-panted and tank-topped presenters – for so long the nation’s self-appointed tastemakers – struggle to get to grips with punk and start to wonder if (gulp) they’re getting ... old. Here Kid Jensen introduces the Real Thing, Jigsaw, Dave Edmunds, Hot Chocolate and (aagh!) the Sex Pistols.