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Sydney Morning Herald

Monday July 21, 2008

Robin Oliver

Fifi And The Flowertots Marathon

Nick Jr, from 10am

Fifi (pictured) is an official ambassador for Planet Ark's National Tree Day, so to celebrate she is joined by her Flowertot friends in a day-long marathon of stories from Flowertot Garden. It's a fun event that aims to encourage young children to lead healthier lives, eat healthier foods and enjoy the outdoors. Join in at any time.

Ultimate Olympics

Discovery, from 6.30pm

Three programs - Rivals, Go Beijing! and High-Tech Games - plug the Chinese cause for the eighth of the eighth in '08, seen as a propitious starting date for the Olympic Games. The first program examines the determination of Chinese athletes to finish first in the medal count. The second tells how the country's propaganda machine has been brought into play to achieve an image of the ultimate Olympic setting, somehow trading filthy grey skies for breathable air in the nick of time, if only for a few weeks.

The program makes the astonishing claim that the Chinese are so determined to succeed that 300 million have been learning English. Finally, it looks at the monumental efforts to put a spin of technical excellence on the event. High-Tech Games suggests much of this effort has been going on "out of sight". Can't be the algae; must be the smog.

World Cup Draw

Fox Sports News, 7pm

The Socceroos' path to the 2010 FIFA World Cup continues with live coverage from Kuala Lumpur of the fourth-round draw of the Asian qualifiers. Australia is among 10 teams in the draw. The five teams in each group will play one another in home and away games.

The top two countries will qualify for the 2010 World Cup, while the two teams below them will play off to then challenge the winner of the Oceania group in home and away matches.

Manual Of Love 2

(2007) World Movies, 8.30pm

This looks at the painful side of unsweetened love, variously illustrated with a side serve of laughs by a suitably handsome bunch of actors. Nico (Riccardo Scamarcio) steams up the screen with Lucia (Monica Bellucci), who plays both his physiotherapist and temptress after a car accident leaves him temporarily disabled.

The second story follows Franco (Fabio Volo) and the hormonally hopped-up Manuela (Barbora Bobulova), who visit Spain for fertility treatment. Then there's Filippo (Antonio Albanese) and Fosco (Sergio Rubini), preparing for their gay wedding against the wishes of Filippo's papa. Finally, Ernesto (Carlo Verdone) who, bored with middle age, seeks the company of an alluring young chick, who gives him a run for his money.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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