Business On Television

During the Cold War, espionage was a weapon in the global power struggle. In today's corporate world, intelligence gathering has become equally potent in the battle for commercial power. The Money Programme (Sunday, 7.30 p.m., BBC2) examines the burgeoning industry which has developed to service the hunger for corporate secrets. The firms range from those offering sophisticated market research to companies prepared to bend the law in their search for trade secrets.

EU funding is not the only thing beginning to dry up for Irish farmers. An acute shortage of labour in the agriculture sector means farmers are looking elsewhere for help. Ear to the Ground (Monday, 8.30 p.m., RTE 1), talks to some of Ireland's newest immigrants - farm labourers from Latvia. The programme also takes a look at a project involving exotic pheasants from Asia which started out as a pastime and has expanded into a successful business.

Last week's High Court decision blocking the awarding of the third mobile phone licence to the Meteor consortium following a challenge by British company Orange showed what a competitive business it is. But Leargas (Tuesday, 7.30 p.m., RTE 1) poses the question: are mobile phones bad for our health? Research by Dr Carmel Mothersill, manager of the Radiation Science Centre at the Institute of Technology in Dublin shows damage caused to human cells by the type of radiation emitted by both masts and phones.

A Blackpool restaurant is the second ailing eaterie to come to the attention of troubleshooter Pat McDonald in If You Can't Stand the Heat (Wednesday, 9 p.m., Channel 4). McDonald immediately recognises that restaurant team Tony Beswick and Marco Calle have serious problems - in a desperate measure they have been offering a two-course lunch for £4.95, which means a very small profit. Time for some unpalatable facts.

The likelihood of success when it comes to picking the right stocks is often likened to monkeys throwing darts at a list on the wall. Certainly that seems to be approach of the Baby Boomers, a team of toddlers who choose shares on the London Stock Market by picking balls out of a bucket. Show Me The Money (Thursday, 1 p.m. Channel 4) welcomes back the broking babies to see how much money they've made or lost so far.