Today's pick: Modern Times: Guinnessty
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Your support makes all the difference.Modern Times: Guinnessty (9pm BBC2) Is Philippa Walker a Guinness? For she has secured extraordinary access to the troubled brewing dynasty. Her primary source is the 90-year-old Maureen Guinness, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, and the sole survivor of the three dazzling Jazz Age debs whose inherited millions have trickled down and out of the family every since. It's not a pretty tale, but pungently told - with early deaths from heroin, Aids, alcohol and fast cars littering the lineage. And the damage extends beyond the blood line - Oonagh Guinness's adopted Mexican son Desmond drinking himself to death for the cameras (with pints of Guinness; a nice touch that) and Ernest Saunders, "abandoned" by the family despite increasing their wealth sixfold, here giving his first TV interview since leaving prison.
Secret Lives: Lester Piggott (9pm C4) Compared to the Guinness's millions, Lester Piggott's avariciousness is spare change indeed. Patrick Forbes' film tries to discover what makes Piggott tick - and can discover only money. That and a hard, wild streak that comes from mastering thoroughbreds, and the arrogance bred of being idolised by princes and paupers. For some reason the Old Gits come to mind.
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