Daily TV & radio guide - Thursday

Moral Notes (11.30 am R4). Victorian popular songs and their values: Simon Brett continues his series with a selection of anti-drink songs.
Word of Mouth (4.00 R4). Michael Rosen examines the jargon of student life.
The Material World (4.30 R4). Research shaping the next generation of cars, with Ken Kendall and Gordon Smith.
Gold Domes, Black Earth (8.00 R4). People and power: Tim Whewell visits Novgorod, a city that can boast a democratic past. Its present is more oligarchic, however.
Analysis (8.30 R4). Felipe Fernandez-Armesto on the meaning of health scares – are they distracting us in the West from identifying the real reasons for our comparative good health?
Costing the Earth (9.00 R4). Depleted uranium weapons and their dangers.
» Horizon : Destination Mars (9.00 BBC2). After the previous programme’s mixture of fact and speculation about life on Mars, this week’s » Horizon : Destination Mars  turns to a possible manned mission to the planet. Clearly, a good few people are thinking seriously about the idea that “by 2020, humans could be standing on Mars”, so most of this Horizon is devoted to the risks in health and psychological well-being posed to astronauts on their likely six-month journey to - a far from enjoyable trip, nowhere near the imagined warp-drive-powered voyages of Star Trek . » Planet Mars .
» Planets – Brief Encounters (9.50 BBC2) “Moon Race”. Fragments from the big bang that was 1999’s Planets series.
» The West Wing (10.00 C4). Pilot episode of US series that offers an interesting if somewhat idealised view of US presidential politics. Last month in New York magazine, Michael Wolff described the series as “on its way to being the most important political document of the age”, which is perhaps exaggerating a bit – still, his thoughtful piece is worth reading » 'Our Remote Control President' .
Disinfo Nation (1.40 am C4). Including an interview with two “apocalyptic religious painters” - Norbert Kox and Frank Bruno - in Douglas, Arizona and the thoughts 93-year-old philosopher Brother Theodore (no, I don’t know who he is, but it might just be worth setting the video to find out.