BEST OF THE REST

PRESS BBC1, 9pm

AFTER being hounded by The Post’s editor Duncan (Ben Chaplin), Holly, a journalist at rival paper The Herald, has finally decided to give in. “Make me an offer,” she said.

Walking into The Post on her first morning, Herald colleagues are horrified, actually shouting: “Oh Holly, no!” But is it in fact a good move?

This is an amusing episode as Holly (Charlotte Riley) faces her former foes and attempts to fit in at The Post. Duncan (pictured, centre) tells her to lighten up and “be funny”, while Ed (Paapa Essiedu) is less than thrilled to see his former housemate.

Almost immediately there’s trouble for Holly, now the Post’s Special Correspondent, when she wades in with her view on the latest front-page story.

Duncan would rather she focused her attentions on getting the scoop on the government’s secret Resonance programme.

Elsewhere, Amina (Priyanga Burford) makes a big announcement about the future of The Herald.

THE PLACEBO EXPERIMENT: CAN MY BRAIN CURE MY BODY? BBC2, 9pm

EVERY year the NHS spends more than £400 million on painkillers and we swallow almost five billion over-thecounter capsules. But how much of it is about the drugs and how much of it is about what’s going on in your brain?

In this compelling experiment for Horizon, the largest of its kind in Britain, Michael Mosley, pictured, investigates the placebo effect.

In Blackpool he gathers 117 people all suffering from chronic back pain.

They think they are trialling a powerful new painkiller, but in fact they will be given nothing more than ground rice.

“I want to know if it’s possible to relieve pain using only the power of the mind,” says Michael.

They mean business. They’ve set up a fake clinic, including convincing waiting times and fake bottle warning labels, all to avoid clues.

The patients do see real doctors and have real consultations, but will the fake pills work? And how will they react when they find out the truth?