A Place In The Sun (C4)

Sweeney Investigates (BBC2)

Cocaine (C4)

ANYONE who's ever bought property knows that it's fraught with problems. But marketing executive Rupert hit some unexpected ones as expert Amanda Lamb showed him round Slovenia, where house prices are rising now that the country has joined the EU.

There was, for instance, the place that resembled a 70s porn set (although no-one asked Rupert how he knew what one looked like).

That could be redecorated - you can't do much about earthquakes. He viewed one house in a town that's been hit by three big ones in the past 30 years. So that's what they mean by falling property prices.

A home there would cost him 40 per cent less than in other parts of Slovenia and he was told that the earthquakes were not serious enough to deter tourists, the people he needed to rent his property.

Another, rundown house came complete with two goats, two donkeys, a resident bat and two-and-a-half acres of land - for the knockdown price of £16,000.

He settled for not one but two apartments in the same block. Lack of red tape meant the deal went through amazingly quickly and he had the keys to the door within a month.

Roman Abramovich, who owns Chelsea Football Club, could have afforded to buy the entire town. But where did the Russian billionaire get his money? That was the question being asked in Sweeney Investigates.

There was no easy answer, just a complicated tangle of financial wheeling and dealing that, despite reporter John Sweeney's valiant efforts to explain, remained totally baffling to me.

The talk was of black gold, a £350m fortune, aluminium wars, reindeer breeding and Russian oligarchs. But quite frankly, after 40 minutes I was none the wiser. All I knew was that Abramovich has a personal fortune of $12bn and can earn as much in a week as David Beckham earns in a year.

Leo and Ze, the central characters in the second of the Cocaine documentaries, showed what happens when you're poor and try to make money.

Ze was a reformed gang leader from the slums of Rio de Janeiro. His young nephew, 19-year-old Leo, packed drugs and acted as lookout for raids by police. He was in debt to one of the gangs, not a good position to be in as the punishment for non-payment was death.

Of course, you never imagined for a minute that Leo would actually be killed. But towards the end, a caption stated starkly that Leo had been executed - shot and then cut into pieces. As we tried to take in the shock news, Ze appeared on screen saying: "He didn't pay, so he paid with his life".

Another death counted for little in a community where poverty, gang violence and drug use are a way of life. Leo didn't repay his debts, so he had to be punished. "It's his own fault," said Ze, rather unsympathetically you might think.

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, The Sage Gateshead

PLACE one of the most distinguished orchestras in the world in one of the finest music halls and combine with a receptive audience and you have a guaranteed recipe for a superlative musical experience. So it was when the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra appeared at the Sage Gateshead, giving powerhouse performances of some of the Russian greats.

The evening, under the baton of the orchestra's legendary musical director, Yuri Temirkanov, kicked off with a stirring account of Stravinsky's Petrushka. Performing the 1947 version, the magical flute of the puppet master bringing his wooden subjects to life had a penetrating quality that even had the conductor stopping to savour. Ever the showman, Temirkanov's grand gestures were unfussy yet drew out every inflexion and turn of phrase. He generated animated playing from the strings, while the woodwinds brimmed with unpredictable energy.

The audience was then treated to one of Rachmaninov's most popular works, Symphony No. 2. The music seemed to well up from the depths of the earth as the double basses opened the melancholic first movement, with Temirkanov in full command over the work's awesome architecture. The adagio was unhurried and was so sublime, one did not want it to end, while the last movement was driven to an exhilarating climax. Sustained and heartfelt applause was rewarded with two encores from Tchaikovsky ballet suites. The orchestra ends its three-day visit tonight - and, yes, it is sold out.

Gavin Engelbrecht