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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday August 3, 2009

Brad Newsome

Paul Merton in ChinaBBC Knowledge, 7.30pmThis four-part series follows British comedian Paul Merton as he travelled through China in 2007. Tonight's episode features the obligatory gagging-on-delicacies scene (sheep penis, donkey penis and so on) but Merton shows himself to be a thoughtful character with a quick but gentle wit.Whats Your News?Nick Jr, 1.30pm, 7pmAn anthill might not be the best metaphor for the downsized newsroom of the 21st century but that's what we've got here: a television news channel run by computer-generated ants and a big, boofy anteater. Toddlers might love it but it's utterly mind-numbing for adults.Tesla: Master of LightningHistory, 9.30pmBack in the 1880s, Thomas Edison's direct-current electricity was the only game in town. When Nikola Tesla's alternating-current system emerged, Edison got nasty, sending roadshows across the US and Canada to scare people away from AC by staging public electrocutions of dogs, horses, cattle and (as we're shown here without any warning) one sorry elephant.That's just one of several ripping yarns in this documentary, which follows Tesla's life from his birth in the Balkans in 1856 to his death in the US in 1943. Along the way, he made the world's first neon and fluorescent lights, took the first X-ray and developed the radio technology that would make Marconi famous.