The Great Pyramid (C4); Murphy's Law (BBC1); For a pile of stones, the Great Pyramid at Giza has a lot of secrets.

Many have been revealed. Still more have yet to see the light of day. Egyptologists, archaeologists and scientists are still trying to understand exactly what the massive structure was for and how it worked.

The Great Pyramid was the subject of a live TV programme shown last September when the oldest sealed coffin found in Egypt was opened, and a robotic camera was sent along a narrow shaft to investigate a mysterious door with copper handles.

One of the most intriguing - and scary - parts of my own "leisurely tour of Egypt" some years ago (although leisurely wasn't the word most of our party used for the hectic if it's Tuesday, it must be Luxor itinerary) was going into the Great Pyramid and climbing to the king's burial chamber. This was not something to be recommended for those suffering from claustrophobia or an aversion to getting stuck behind a gang of large American tourists while climbing a steep, narrow staircase. I was pleased to see that the interior lighting had improved dramatically for this particular expedition.

This was all fascinating stuff with various academics, including Dr Penny Wilson of Durham University, putting forward reasons for the shaft under investigation. You wouldn't have thought people could get so excited about a hole in a rock. The shaft seems to have something to do with the pharoah Khufu's journey to the afterlife.

We also heard about the discovery of 1,000 new graves belonging to people who built the Pyramids. It seems they weren't slaves, as originally thought, but workers who were well housed and fed like Olympic athletes.

The newly-found coffin was opened live on TV to reveal a well-preserved skeleton, as the robotic camera drilled a hole in the door at the end of the shaft and peeped through to find an empty space. Not any old empty space, but the first new space to be discovered in the pyramid for 130 years.

Cold Feet star James Nesbitt was also in a confined space as an undercover policeman in Murphy's Law. He was in a prison cell, sharing with the prime suspect in a kidnapped girl case. The daughter of a billionaire industrialist was missing and some overzealous patrol cops had booked Richard Mooney, the man most likely to have done it, on a traffic offence and found the girl's credit card in the boot.

This meant the main suspect was in custody, but that police didn't know where he'd left the missing woman - the third victim of the kidnapper known as Electric Bill. Police reckoned she wouldn't last longer than five days, so Tommy Murphy was jailed as a terror suspect to befriend Mooney and find out if he was the guilty party.

He was warned, rather unnecessarily, that "there are hard cases in prison". Indeed, the usual motley band of sadistic prisoners and bent warders paraded before us. My interest in Mooney's innocence or guilt waned within half-an-hour.

Nesbitt was watchable enough but the supporting characters, such as tough female boss and stroppy commander, were strictly from the book of TV cop cliches.

Published: 29/04/2003