Hot TV CHOICE

Ever wondered what would happen if you submerged your credit card for 30 minutes in a glass of acetone? Probably not, I’d imagine. But you can probably guess.

That’s what Hannah Fry does in the first of her new series THE SECRET GENIUS OF MODERN LIFE (8pm, BBC Two). Or, rather, what she almost does.

What she actually does is borrow her producer’s card and dunk that instead. I’ve no idea why.

Anyway, yes, sure enough, it begins to dissolve. Half an hour later, it’s almost destroyed. But not quite. “Sticking out of the wreckage,” she points out, “is this very thin hint of a wire.”

And having fished that out, she uses it to buy a cup of coffee.

Yes, the one thing that’s miraculously survived this strange exercise is the credit card’s contactless payment gubbins. Amazing, eh? I’ve forgotten what conclusion we’re meant to draw from this, but it’s definitely fun to watch.

What I can say for sure is that the whole of this episode focuses on credit card technology and how it’s evolved – not just to make it easier to pay for stuff (Hannah’s coffee actually costs three quid, so personally I’d have told them to shove it) but to stay one step ahead of the fraudsters.

These used to include Tony, one of the show’s interviewees. An ex-con, these days Tony is a security advisor to businesses. But at the height of his criminal activities, it sounds as if he made a tidy sum. It also sounds as if his crimes kept him fit.

“I spent six years running from the police,” he says.