WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
JUST imagine you could build your own time machine. What would be the first thing you’d do?
Set the controls to take you way back into the past, to experience what life was like many centuries ago and maybe even get yourself a lovely dose of rickets?
Or whizz off into the future, or at least far enough to find out the result of Sunday’s World Cup final and stake your life savings on it?
These may sound like daft questions – all right, there’s no “may” about it – but they’re ones you could find yourself having to consider before long, at least if you believe some of the boffins we meet on HORIZON: HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE (9pm, BBC2).
They include the likes of scientist Ronald Mallett (a possible relation of Timmy, I’d imagine, although for some reason the programme doesn’t clarify this), who’s convinced he can find a practical way to crack the so-called time barrier.
“He’s not crazy, he’s a highly respected professor of physics,” insists the voiceover man, overlooking the fact that it’s perfectly easy to be both. Needless to say, nobody’s yet reached the point where they’ve actually mastered this time travel thing. But then there do seem quite a lot of conflicting theories.
“Wormholes are a way to make time travel possible,” one woman insists. So I guess at least the worms are going places. TALKING of travelling into the past, THE RISE AND FALL OF NOKIA (9pm, BBC Four) is a reminder of how quickly tech can date. One minute it’s cutting-edge, the next it’s a novelty item on Antiques Roadshow.