Q.E.D Season 14, Episode 3: Dark Side of the Sun

The Bike

Chris Boardman 's race to Olympic gold in Barcelona on the extraordinary Lotus superbike is now legendary. For the bike's inventor Mike Burrows , Boardman's victory marked the end of a ten-year battle to win recognition for his revolutionary design and another step in his lifelong quest to make man the fastest animal on earth. For the makers, Lotus Engineering, it was the beginning of a struggle to turn a world famous prototype into a road-going commercial success. QED charts the story from drawing board to factory floor.

Misha

The victim of a hit-and-run accident, 15-year-old Misha arrived at St Thomas's Hospital in a deep coma. Her parents were told that her chances of recovery were almost zero. This moving film follows Misha's efforts to pull herself back into the world she knew. She could neither walk, talk, nor feed herself, but her family was determined never to give up. This is the uplifting story of her recovery.

Walking Back to Happiness

Australian surgeons Reg and Catherine Hamlin arrived in Ethiopia intending to stay for only three years. Thirty years later they are still there tackling the huge medical problem of Fistula - a condition caused by childbirth injuries - which blights the lives of hundreds of thousands of women in the Third World. The Hamlins built a hospital with charity funds and began treating patients. So far they have transformed the lives of 14,000 young women who were living as outcasts, rejected by their husbands, families and villages. Anne Diamond narrates their story and follows one of the most recent arrivals at their hospital, 17-year-old Wubit Abune.

Knights of the Shining Piddock

The Pholas dactylus, or common piddock, is a shellfish with a simple lifestyle - it glows in the dark, breeds and dies. Its enemies are pollution and the Mediterranean gourmets who eat it as an hors d'oeuvre. Although on the verge of extinction, it also looks set to revolutionise the treatment of diabetes, arthritis and heart disease and make a fortune for two scientists. Fifteen years ago Jan and Robert Knight discovered a mutual enthusiasm for the marine mollusc. Working from their dining room, they extracted its luminescent juice and discovered that it has a wide range of applications in medical diagnosis. Now the chemical they called Pholasin has aroused enormous interest among research organisations as well as a Kent oyster farmer who has started a piddock farm for them. Griff Rhys Jones narrates the remarkable story of the piddock, the couple who have devoted their lives to it, and the prototype of the medical kit that could make them millionaires.

Tokyo Earthquake

Seventy years ago, the city of Tokyo was hit by an earthquake. It destroyed half a million buildings, provoked national economic collapse and left 140,000 people dead or dying. Another earthquake of the same size could strike at any time. When it does it will obliterate one third of the earth's richest city and plunge the entire world into unprecedented economic crisis. QED shows, in graphic and disturbing detail, the effects the earthquake will have on 14 million people who live in Tokyo and on the fabric of the modern city; it also spells out the impact it will have on life in the rest of the world.

Art and Chips

A work of art, specially commissioned by Q E D, is being given away by the programme tonight. Created by the "father of pop art" Richard Hamilton , it offers an amusing but disturbing view of today's world. He made his name in the 1950s when, using scissors and glue, he produced a collage depicting life in that period. That work is now worth several hundred thousand pounds. For his 1990s version, he uses the latest computer technology to combine feature film, television programmes, magazines and photographs. Although the original exists only in his computer, he has produced 5,000 hand signed laser prints which will be given away to viewers. Joanna Lumley tells the story of a unique collaboration between art and television.

A Chinese Cure for Eczema?

Six days a week, in a small basement room in London's Soho, a Chinese herbalist called Dr Luo treats the first 50 patients who scrawl their names on a list taped to her door. They come from all over the world and most of them come with eczema. Amazed by her success, a specialist from Great Ormond Street Hospital embarked upon a unique project to bring the benefits of Dr Luo's medicine to his own patients. The story of this courageous collaboration reveals the problems that arise when western medicine tries to adopt an eastern remedy.

The Family Game

At just 5 years old, Andrew has already left two schools because of his disruptive behaviour. His parents are at their wits' end. For the past six weeks the whole family has been visiting the Maudsley Hospital in London, where specialists believe they can discover the cause of Andrew's problems. The "parent-child game" which is being pioneered at the hospital teaches parents to believe that - at a time when anti-social behaviour is increasing - all families should be taught these skills. This moving account of a family in trouble and a revolutionary treatment has lessons for parents and children everywhere.

Gallop to Freedom