Sometimes the one-hour slot for BBC arts documentaries can be a handicap as well as an advantage, especially if the subject-matter seems insignificant.
This is certainly the case with THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE STOLEN PAINTINGS, where presenter Alastair Sooke surveys some of the most audacious heists past and present from galleries worldwide, looks at how they were organized, and interviews some of the security personnel involved in trying to recover the stolen works.
The program was constructed in heist-thriller style, recalling films such as Ronald Neame's GAMBIT (1966) - far better than the 2012 remake - with the heists constructed as audacious plots designed to outwit even the most sophisticated security systems. As such, they are to be admired as well as deplored. Although Sooke tried to introduce a serious note by claiming that stolen works deprive all of us of our artistic heritage, we could not help but think that the criminals who actually planned such raids achieved what might be described as perfect crimes, especially as many of the paintings they stole have never been recovered.