Bubble Trouble (Sunday, 8.00 p.m., BBC 2) continues the story of the speculative fever in Japan during the 1980s and how the country went on to experience its crippling crash. This programme in the series, Changing the Japanese Way, tells how workers had to abandon the presumption of a "job for life".

The rags-to-riches story of the British-owned supermarket, Tesco, is featured in British Empire (Sunday, 8.00 p.m., Channel 4). This saga of family infighting and intrigue began in 1919 with East-End barrow boy Jack Cohen who, by the 1960s, had become a multimillionaire.

Ear to the Ground (Monday, 8.30 p.m., RTE 1) returns to the issue of housing the poor in a rich economy. This week the problem for the rural Republic is told through the story of Paddy and Mary Tyrell of Straffan, Co Kildare.

The abundance of part-time jobs makes it very tempting for students to forgo some of their study time to make a bit of cash. Leargas (Tuesday, 7.30 p.m., RTE 1) looks at the pros and cons of this distraction from exams and asks if our teenagers are becoming independent far too early?

Mortgages for first-time house buyers, supermarket loyalty cards and the cost of eating out feature in It's Your Money (Tuesday, 8.00 p.m., RTE 1).

Drive! (Wednesday, 8.00 p.m., Network 2) visits the Carlow Institute of Technology and discovers an Irish innovation that may propel the entire motoring industry into the 22nd century - using bio-organic waste.

sokelly@irish-times.ie