John Davies assesses the week's broadcasting (all times pm unless stated).
Pick of the week
Piers Gough's survey of British architecture, The Shock of the Old, comes to a triumphant conclusion on Sunday (8.00 C4) with a look at some of the key buildings of the past 100 years, from a suburban Edwin Lutyens house "that everyone wanted to copy", via Bexhill's De La Warr Pavilion and the Royal Festival Hall to Lord's Cricket Ground, which for Gough is "a showcase of cutting-edge architecture".
FRIDAY September 22
Unreported World (7.30 C4). Southern Sudan's sleeping sickness epidemic and the drug patent laws obstructing treatment.
SATURDAY September 23
Organic Roots: The Surprising History of Organic Farming (2.30 R4). Historian Philip Cornford on the organic movement's origins in the 1930s. First of two.
The Irish Empire (5.45 BBC2). Part three of series on Irish emigration concentrates on the women who went abroad.
Going for Bronze (8.00 R4). Memories and archives from postwar university students.
The Brains Trust (9.30 R3). This week's thinkers: Frances Ashcroft, John Carey, Angela Tilby and Theodore Zeldin.
Welcome to Futurama (9.30 C4). At the start of an animation week, Matt Groening (The Simpsons) introduces his latest series.
SUNDAY September 24
Australia - Beyond the Fatal Shore (8.00 BBC2). "Chinks, Wops and Roundeyes": last-but-one of Robert Hughes's series is about Australia's multiculturalism.
The Shock of the Old (8.00 C4). See pick of the week.
The BBC News Debate: Failing Britain's Minorities? (9.00 R5 and BBC News 24). Debate timed to precede the Labour Party conference, includes Paul Boateng and Warwick University's Mohammed Anwar.
MONDAY September 25
Start the Week (9.00am R4). With historian Simon Schama, whose A History of Britain starts on BBC2 on September 30.
The Devil's Rope (11.00am R4). The history of barbed wire in the American West.
University Challenge (8.00 BBC2, also Tuesday). University College London versus New College, Oxford; the following day, Sheffield Hallam versus Bristol University.
Is It a Boy or a Girl? (9.00 C4). US documentary on babies born with both male and female characteristics.
Tsunami (9.00 Discovery Channel). About the 1998 Papua New Guinea wave and tsunamis in the geological record.
TUESDAY September 26
The New World of War (8.00 R4). What peacekeeping lessons can we learn from Kosovo and Sierra Leone?
Night Waves (9.40 R3). Including Roy Porter on the Enlightenment.
WEDNESDAY September
Frontiers (9.00 R4). New research on the human immune system and the mind.
THURSDAY September 28
The Material World (4.30 R4). How robotics is borrowing from natural selection, with Sussex University's Phil Husbands.
Europe - Belief and Belonging (8.00 R4). Series exploring modern Europe and its roots begins with David Sells meeting Charlemagne's fans in Aachen.
The Politics of Food (8.05 World Service, repeated Friday 2.05am, 3.05). Globalisation and the rise of the food giants.
Secret Agent (9.00 BBC2). Anecdotal history of Britain's wartime special operations executive. Final episode.
Slavery (9.00 C4). Present-day slavery in India, Cote D'Ivoire, the US and Britain.
More programmes at www.thesis.co.uk (click on radio and TVlistings). Email: Davieses@aol.com