With one in every town, for every and all manifestations of the arts, culture, industry etc, festivals are a thriving business in the State: a six-part nightly series, Edinburgh Or Bust (starts Channel 4, Wednesday, 11.30 p.m) follows not only the acts trying to achieve stardom, but the progress of the organisers of the main venues in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The first programme goes back to March, when they are trying to book acts. [SBX]
Making a game out of lucre, Easy Money (BBC 1, Monday, 10.05 a.m.) is a new panel quiz. Guests compete to see which celebrity team ends up with the most money after "investing" in banks, antiques, shares etc. "One of the most eye-opening things is that buying shares in the companies which sell you financial products is often better than buying the products themselves," observes the presenter, Alice Beer.
Looking Good (BBC 2, Wednesday, 8.30 p.m.) asks whether men should pay more attention to the way they dress at work: it takes two businessmen, one who dresses for success and one who doesn't think it matters, and asks whether their lives would be different if they adopted each others' style.
The story of Christopher Folkard, desperately sacrificing everything to keep afloat a company he doesn't even own, continues in the documentary Your Money And Your Life (Channel 4, Sunday, 8 p.m.). Folkard is so deep in debt personally as well as in business that he can see no hope but to pull his firm, Macey Precision Gears, through the bad times in the hope that he will then be able to bail himself out.
It doesn't seem so long since the laser was regarded with infinite suspicion, and now it is an integral part of life and industry. Equinox: Dawn Of The Death Ray (Channel 4, Tuesday, 9 p.m.) looks at its history, and its role in warfare.
Deals On Wheels (Channel 4, Wednesday 8.30 p.m.) sees presenter Mike Brewer selling a Fiat Barchetta he bought in Germany for £10,000; the star buy of the week is a Porsche Carrera.
