The Armstrong Lie on Channel 4

Channel 4 is showing the film The Armstrong Lie on Monday 7th July:

When [Lance Armstrong] announced his intention to return to the fray in 2009, after a four-year retirement, the prolific, Oscar-winning documentary-maker Alex Gibney jumped at the chance to  film the maligned Texan's attempt to win the Tour an eighth time.

Given unprecedented access to Armstrong and his team, Gibney's documentary The Road Back was about to be released when the truth about Armstrong's systematic drug-taking broke.

Gibney shelved the project for a couple of years, and then began to transform his film, via the addition of interviews with Armstrong's detractors and footage of the cyclist's own admissions of guilt, from an upbeat observational piece into something altogether more critical.

What emerged is an absorbing and fascinating study of a monumentally arrogant sportsman's determination to do whatever it took to win and his equal willingness to do or say whatever was necessary to cover up his less savoury actions.

Should be a must-watch.