How To Rob A Bank (C4); The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (BBC1)

IF you dated a bankrobber in the 1950s, the chances are you'd have safe sex. Such unlawful types always carried a condom - one of the tools of their criminal trade, along with a stick of gelignite, detonator and battery.

The condom was used to hold the explosives in the keyhole of the safe being blown, one of the many educational tips in the first part of How To Rob A Bank, which illustrated changing fashions in stealing money.

For 30 years bank robbery was the crime of choice of Britain's criminal elite. Various retired members of that fraternity - including Albert Reading, once described as Public Enemy No 1, and Freddie Foreman, dubbed the managing director of British crime - were on hand with the details of how robbery became more violent.

The discreet art of safecracking, often carried out by men trained in explosives in the army during the Second World War, died as safe manufacturers made them harder to break into.

In the 1960s, cash dominated the economy and money in transit became the target for thieves. Reading recalled one amusing occasion when he hid in a large, old-fashioned pram outside a grocer's shop and leapt out to attack a cash van as it pulled up. People must have been alarmed by the sight of the unbaby-like Reading suddenly emerging from the covers.

Later, robbers became more violent, using ammonia spray and shotguns to attack guards. Then it was back indoors because banks hadn't changed much since the turn of the century and were easy targets. One robber spoke of the "magic and theatre" of an armed robbery and the high when he entered the banking hall, or arena as he called it.

Once banks snapped out of their complacency and increased security, including cameras and cashier screens, this secret technology made the rewards too small for the risk.

This was all much more intriguing and exciting than anything in the returning Inspector Lynley Mysteries, which had a plot mixing a dead cricketer and animal rights activists. Nathaniel Parker and Sharon Small play the inevitable odd couple sleuths. He's posh, she's common, they're both boring.

It took them 90 minutes to solve a puzzle that most viewers will have solved long before the end.