Television: Pick of the day

DOCUMENTARY Z How to Sleep Better (8pm BBC1)

VTonight, twinkly-eyed Professor Robert Winston (above) deconstructs sleep and attempts to explain why some people find it such an elusive state. An average adult in the UK can expect to slumber for a couple of minutes over seven hours, but Winston reveals that the Continental desire for siesta has a sound biological basis. There are two dips in our sleep pattern when the desire to sleep is strongest: one in the middle of the night and another approximately six hours after we get up. Winston has tips for nightworkers, and advises a Cornish milkman who starts his milkround at 2.30am to wear sunglasses in the early evening.

SPORT Z Arsenal vs Manchester United (10.35pm BBC1)

VWith both managers having being muzzled by their clubs at the request of the FA, sadly their entertaining bickering has subsided ahead of this crucial fixture between the Arsenal of Arsene Wenger (above) and Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.

DRAMA Z The Rotters' Club (9pm BBC2)

VThe second part of Clement and La Frenais's adaptation of Jonathan Coe's novel finds the Trotters moving on after the explosion. Meanwhile, Philip finds a letter to his mother (Sarah Lancashire, above centre) from the foppish Mr Plumb.