TELEVISION / BRIEFING: Man against the Mob

This week's WORLD IN ACTION (8.30pm ITV) goes for that surefire ratings winner, the Mafia. The melodramatic title - 'The Walking Corpse' - refers to the name given by his supporters to Leoluca Orlando, head of La Rete, Italy's increasingly popular anti- Mafia party. Dorothy Byrne's documentary profiles the former mayor of Palermo - also featured in a recent Timewatch on the Cosa Nostra - who has made it his life's work to combat the Mob. In the wake of the murder of the two anti-Mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, Orlando has become the most high- profile figure fighting against organised crime in Italy. The arrest of the alleged Godfather, Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, has redoubled the Mafia's determination to hit back at Orlando. He rarely sees his wife and children and spends every night in a different bed. Politicians have rarely been so committed.

SOUTH (11pm C4) has the commendable aim of giving a platform to film-makers from the Southern hemishpere. Its second series opens with Deadline 1997, two films on the impending hand- over of Hong Kong to the Chinese. In the run-up to 1997, China is increasingly worshipping at the altar of market forces. Hong Kong workers discuss their hopes and fears about the impending take- over.

(Photograph omitted)