WHAT’S HOT TO WATCH TODAY
RUNNING is good for you. So is cycling. We know this stuff already. Running gets your heart racing and your blood pumping, while cycling enables you to have lively encounters with other road-users, often concluding in a healthy, calorie-burning punch-up in the middle of the street.
But when it comes to giving you a feelgood buzz, there’s another activity that looks like an even better option. Namely, singing. Yes, seriously.
Tying in with the BBC’s Music Day (well, more or less, that’s actually not until Friday), tonight’s TRUST ME, I’M A DOCTOR (8pm, BBC2) is doing an experiment to compare the mood-boosting effects of running, cycling and group singing, using volunteers from the Derbyshire Rock Choir.
The physiologist leading this study says she’ll be measuring the volunteers’ endocannabinoids.
“What the pigging hell are endocannabinoids?” presenter Michael Mosley asks her, although sadly not using those actual words.
“We make these in our body,” she tells him, “and they’re very structurally similar to the chemicals that are made in the cannabis plant.”
“Wow! Cool!” he replies, but again, disappointingly, using more grown-up language. ELSEWHERE, the next bit of JOANNA LUMLEY’S SILK ROAD ADVENTURE (9pm, ITV) finds her in Iran. “I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be here!” she exclaims. But then she actually does tell us. “D’you know, up till ten days ago we didn’t know whether we were going to be able to come to this fabulous country. And then suddenly our visas came through and I’m here now! And so are you!”