Pick of the week
"The embattled field of archaeology (often accused of imperialism) should be at the heart of the classroom curriculum," Camille Paglia wrote in a recent Salon.com column. " is an ideal way to synthesize history, art, religion and science." This week's television offers plenty such synthesis. Timewatch (Friday 9.00 BBC2) uses the discoveries of Nero's Golden House in Rome to illuminate the emperor's reign. Channel 4's The Hidden Scrolls of Herculaneum (Thursday 9.00) is about the rediscovery and excavation of the Villa Dei Papyri, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. In Britain, Meet the Ancestors (Monday 8.30 BBC2) explores the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia through clues at Bamburgh Castle while Time Team (Sunday 6.00 C4) goes back two centuries in search of the world's first working railway at Blaenafan in Gwent.
All times pm unless stated.
FRIDAY February 2
Novel Russia (11.00 am R4). Present-day Russia explored by Martin Wainwright via the themes of great Russian novels, beginning with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment .
Culture Fix: Postmodernism (1.30, also 4.30, 7.30, 10.30 BBC Knowledge). A fresh introduction to the concept, featuring Charles Jencks, architect Frank Gehry and artist Jenny Holzer.
Lost Worlds: At the Service of the State (9.00 National Geographic). The politics of archaeology - how Nazis, fascists and democrats have exploited archaeology. Last-but-one in John Romer's series, originally shown last year on Channel 4 » Great Excavations .
Timewatch: Nero's Golden House (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). A BBC- Discovery Channel co production that tries to set the record straight on Nero, "the most misrepresented man in history" through a reconstruction of the Roman emperor's Golden House. (More fictionalised Romans in I, Claudius , currently re-running on UK Drama – episodes two and three are on Thursday from 9.00).
SATURDAY February 3
» Breaking the Seal : Tax Records (9.30 am BBC2). Episode two of Open University archive series, first shown last year.
Soaps on the Couch (10.30 am R4). How do soap operas influence their audiences? (repeat).
Stealing the Glory (3.30 R4). Matthew Henson, the black explorer who reached (perhaps) the North pole with Admiral Peary (repeat).
» Correspondent - Rocketchiki (6.50 BBC2). Vladimir Pozner gains 'unprecedented' access to Russia's biggest missile base and reports on the rocket men there.
Bloody Foreigners (8.00 C4). First of two programmes about recent immigrants to Britain is a Dispatches special about the 'illegals'. The second programme, about asylum seekers, is on Sunday; meanwhile tonight Radio 3 has Between the Ears: Everything Will Be Fine (9.45 R3), in which a selection of asylum-seekers' stories are dramatised in a one-hour feature.
The Changing Role of the GP (8.00 R4). Family doctoring illuminated by archive material.
SUNDAY February 4
It's Your Funeral (11.05 am C5). Germaine Greer on what sort of memorial service she'd like.
Five Live Report – Shell Shocked (12 noon R5). "Shell Shocked". The depleted uranium weapons problem, and the Caribbean island that has been used as a firing range.
Private View (12 noon C5). Denis Mahon talks on his collection of 17th-century Italian art.
» Music Matters (12.15 R3). Northern Ireland's Sonic Arts Research Centre.
On Being Wrong (5.40 R4). The subject of the second in Michael Rosen's series is about something called the Charles Bovary Principle
» Sunday Feature : The John Tusa Interview (5.45 R3). Architect Nicholas Grimshaw.
» Time Team (6.00 C4). In search of the world's first working railway at Blaenafan in Gwent.
Natural World (6.50 BBC2). The killer bees of Assam.
Pillories of the State (7.15 R4). Phil Hammond looks at the "therapy industry" with Raj Persaud (who also presents Wednesday's All in the Mind (4.30 R4, repeated next Sunday).
Poisoned (7.30 C4). "Deadly Medicine" - the dangers of accidental or deliberate overdose with prescription drugs.
» Sunday Play : Tis Pity She's a Whore (7.30 R3). New production of Ford's play starring Jude Law and Eve Best.
Bloody Foreigners (8.00 C4). Featuring comedian Omid Djalili, the son of Iranian immigrants on a "personal mission" to find out what life is like for current asylum seekers.
The Day the World Took Off (8.00 History Channel). Part three: "Ships of Fortune", on the reasons for British domination of world trade in the 18th century (repeat from C4).
Hitler's Henchman: Himmler (8.00 C5). The Gestapo and SS chief profiled by ZDF.
The World at War (8.05 BBC2). Part four: "Alone" – Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, early blitzes, etc.
» Panorama (10.15 BBC1). On the UK's railway crisis.
The South Bank Show Awards (10.45 ITV). Awards for cultural achievement for the year 2000. (The winners have already been announced in the daily papers.)
» The Sky at Night (12.35 am BBC1). Patrick Moore and John Zarnecki talk about the Cassini space probe and its recent "fly-by" past Jupiter.
MONDAY February 5
Mapping the Town (11.00 am R4). Julian ( Meet the Ancestors ) Richards starts a new "hidden history" beginning with Cardiff.
Afternoon Play – Victorian Marriage Beds (2.15 R4). About Strindberg and his two wives. With comments from Swedish social historians Asa Bergenheim and Margaretha Fahlgren.
Long, Long Ago (3.30 R4 and for rest of week). Folk tales from different cultures, beginning with an Amerindian myth from Guyana.
Pier People (3.45 R4 and for rest of week). British piers, lost or still surviving, beginning with Clevedon. Llandudno (Tues), Southwold (Wed), Brighton (Thurs) and Blackpool (Fri) follow.
Cementing the Ties (8.00 R4). How a group of teachers have set up links between Oldham and rural Bangladesh.
The Search for Atlantis (8.00 C5). Some of the Atlantis enthusiasts - Madame Blavatsky, the Nazis …
Universe (8.00 C4). "Alien Life" (repeat).
University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). Durham vs. Imperial College, London.
» Meet the Ancestors (8.30 BBC2). Burials in Bamburgh, Northumberland, apparently from the period when the kingdom of Bernicia was flourishing. (Re-runs can be seen on UK Horizons, Friday and Monday 2.00).
Loving the Alien: The Real Erich Von Däniken (9.00 C4). The notorious author, his pseudo-archaeology - and his projected Swiss theme-park.
Journeys to the Bottom of the Sea (9.00 BBC2). Repeat of American "adventurer" Barry Clifford's search for a seventeenth-century French fleet shipwrecked off Venezuela.
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). On design in modern culture, with Angela McRobbie. Plus Oxford's Oliver Taplin on Tantalus .
Everyman: Chained Women (10.35 BBC1). Divorce under orthodox Jewish law.
TUESDAY February 6
The Secrets of Maps (9.30 am). The Peters Projection, the map created by Arno Peters in 1973 to give a fairer view of the world.
Long, Long Ago (3.30 R4). "How Evil Came Into the World" – a Zulu folk tale.
Counterblast (7.30 BBC2). Tony Booth (yes, the PM's father-in-law) believes that the government are not giving pensioners a fair deal, and puts his case with the aid of experts, among them Professors Alan Walker and Paul Whiteley.
Harsh Realities (9.00 R4). Series about healthcare decision-making begins with the subject of clinical trials and informed consent.
Congo (9.00 BBC2). "Spirits of the Forest" – featuring the Baaka pygmies of the Congo and the beast they go hunting.
Boston Law (10.35 BBC1 – 11.05 in N. Ireland, Wales and Scotland). Another appearance for public defender Lisa Medeiros.
WEDNESDAY February 7
Memories Are Made of These (11.00 am R4). Faltering memory and the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
Stephen Hawking's Universe (2.00, also 5.00, 8.00 BBC Knowledge). Repeat series from 1997 reaches episode six, about the search for a "theory of everything".
Long, Long Ago (3.30 R4). Thor's duel with Hrungnir. The ancient Norse myth retold by Kevin Crossley-Holland.
Thinking Allowed (4.00 R4). Laurie Taylor and guests.
California Bay (7.30 C5). The marine life of Monterey Bay, continued.
» The Money Programme (7.30 BBC2). Fishing quotas and the crisis over North Sea stocks are the subject of the first programme in a new series.
Building Big: Skyscrapers (9.00 National Geographic). On remarkable achievements in construction, from Italy's medieval towers to present-day ambitions to build the world's tallest skyscraper.
The Disease Detectives (9.00 R4). Part three of epidemiology series focuses on the relationship between the experts and public authorities, who sometimes don't want to know about epidemiological findings.
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). New insights on Garibaldi and his legacy.
Kirsty MacColl's Cuba (10.00 R2). Part two of the late singer's explorations of Cuban music and culture.
Omnibus: Nancy Mitford (10.35 BBC1; 11.05 in N. Ireland and Wales). To accompany the Sunday-night serialisation of her Love in a Cold Climate , a profile of the oldest Mitford sister. Was she a radical subversive or just an old snob?
The Diary of Jack the Ripper (11.00 C5). Michael Winner with a new theory and "a number of Ripper historians".
THURSDAY February 8
Melvyn Bragg – In Our Time (9.00 am R4). Humanism discussed, with Lisa Jardine and Tony Davis.
The Material World (4.30 R4). The University of Pisa's research on people in love.
The Jewish Journey (8.00 R4). A "personal journey" through the history of Jews in Britain, with Andrew Sachs, starts with the medieval period.
Twenty Minutes: The Lost Arab (8.20 R3). A talk by Linda Grant on the life and work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai.
Costing the Earth (9.00 R4). Last in environmental series is an update on subjects already dealt with, such as overhead power lines and toxic fumes in aircraft.
» Horizon: Killer Algae (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). The menace of caulerpa taxifolia , the weed that is taking over parts of the Mediterranean seabed.
The Private Life of Giuseppe Verdi (9.00 BBC Knowledge). Documentary about the great Italian composer, narrated by Gaia Servadio.
The Hidden Scrolls of Herculaneum (9.00 C4). Second of two Secrets of the Dead specials about the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius focuses on the Herculaneum library that has been discovered packed with thousands of philosophical scrolls.
I, Claudius (9.00 UK Drama). Episodes two and three: "Waiting in the Wings" and "What Shall We Do About Claudius?"
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). Including an item on the archives of Manchester's John Rylands Library, and the latest Don DeLillo novel.
» Planets – Brief Encounters (9.50 BBC2, 10.20 in Wales). Venus.
The Works - La Fenice (10.00 BBC Knowledge). About the fire that destroyed Venice's celebrated theatre five years ago.
» Open Science (from 12.30 am BBC2). Including, at 1.00 am, » Final Frontier , a Mars special, with the latest discoveries and news of the British Beagle 2 mission to the planet.