It’s an accepted fact that we love an underdog in this country. Overdogs don’t even get a look in. From “Eddie” The Eagle Edwards to his conjoined grandsons Jedward, we have a soft spot for the tryers, doomed to failure. We celebrate the unlikely hero, the well-intentioned but hapless. Given this predilection, it’s a wonder Gordon Brown isn’t doing better in the opinion polls.

Elbow are an altogether different kind of underdog, and our favourite kind: The kind who ploughed on, unloved and unnoticed, through rejection and calamity, before eventually coming good in the end. Elbow formed in 1990, they didn’t release their first EP until almost a decade later, and quickly became beloved by music aficionados since their first LP ‘Asleep in the Back’ in 2001. It wasn’t until winning the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’ that they caught they mainstream public’s imagination, finally rewarded for almost twenty years of hard work, and accepting the prize with warmth, humility, gratitude and giddiness.

The Elbow Story (Sunday, 7pm) was recorded in the band’s working environment, Blue Room Studios in Salford. They talk at length and with candour about their career and relationship with each other. It’s one of rock and roll’s dirty secrets that almost any established group that you can think of is riddled with inter-band hatred, resentment and bitterness. Years of petty arguments, power struggles and attention-seeking fester in the petri dish of the tour bus, and very few bands emerged with their friendships intact.

Elbow are one such band, but they’re also honest enough to talk about the ups and downs, the tensions and insecurities which underpin the career or a band. They share personal memories from childhood to stadium tours, and demonstrate the creative processes, nuts and bolts of how they record music.

Many bands are obsessed with controlling their image and PR, only allowing a shiny, controlled and sanitised version of themselves to be shown in interviews. In The Elbow Story, we’re allowed an intimate look inside, anecdotes and insights more common to reminiscences amongst friends than a sterilised interview setting. And they’re really funny, too.

Straight after the documentary, we’re treated to Elbow’s homecoming gig at the MEN Arena in Manchester, and from next week, you’ll be able to hear more of Elbow talking about their career in a series of podcasts, full of bonus material not included in the radio programme due to time constraints.