Higher channels

John Davies's weekly selection of TV andradio programmes likely to be of use to THES readers. (All times pm unless stated.)

Pick of the week

Equinox: Homicide in Kennewick (Tuesday 9.00 C4). Human bones found in Kennewick, Washington State, turned out to be over 8,000 years old and similar to European, not American Indian, skeletons - contrary to scientific orthodoxy. But the story can go no further until legal disputes between archaeologists and local Indian tribes are resolved. Coincidentally, These Remains Are Ours (Monday 11.02 am R4) is about American and Australasian aborigines' claims to recover their ancestors from European museums.

Also this week

SATURDAY October 3

The Sky at Night (12.35 am BBC2). Patrick Moore on Pegasus.

The Glory of the Geeks (8.00 C4). Last in Bob Cringely's series about the Internet includes a Bill Gates interview. Also this week, Cringely presents topical reports from cyberspace in Connected (Monday 11.35 C4).

Cold War (8.05 BBC2). The Marshall Plan.

Tribal Warriors - Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People (National Geographic Channel 10 pm) looks at 4,000-year-old finds from the "Maritime Archaic" period in the north-eastern corner of America. Includes film of excavations at Nulliak Cove, Labrador.

Songs from the Lab (11.00 R4). Scientists talk about music: first in series, Keele psychologist John Sloboda.

SUNDAY October 4

The Classic Serial - The Prelude (3.02 R4). Wordsworth's own shortened version of his autobiographical poem, read by John Rowe.

The Clone Rangers (8.00 C5). As part of a Channel 5 theme-weekend on clones, enthusiast Richard Seed defends his plans for cloning clinics.

Absolute Truth (8.00 BBC2). How Pope John Paul II challenged (and beat) communism, in the second of the series about Roman Catholicism today.

Heart of the Matter (11.40 BBC1). Philosophy professor Janet Radcliffe Richards wants to reconsider the ban on buying and selling kidneys for transplant.

MONDAY October 5

Spies: Women Underground (7.30 History Channel). About women SOE agents who worked under cover in Nazi-occupied Europe.

Local Heroes: Gloucestershire (8.00 BBC2). The inventors of the lawnmower and the concertina, the discoverer of photosynthesis and photography pioneer Fox Talbot - what more could you ask for?

Postscript - Life After Death: The KGB's Literary Archive (9.40 R3 and all week). Surrey University's James Riordan looks at what's revealed in the KGB's files on Isaac Babel, Osip Mandelstam, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nina Hagen-Torn and Nikola Klyuev.

TUESDAY October 6

Dispatches Special (8.00 C4). On the after-effects of China's nuclear testing on its people.

Timewatch: Lloyd George's War (9.00 BBC2). Why did the prime minister who led Britain to victory in World War One later distance himself from the bloodshed? John Grigg and others sift the evidence.

QED: Bubble Babies (9.30 BBC1, 11.20 in Wales). Popular science series returns with story of the fight against the genetic disease SCID (Severe Combined Immuno-Deficiency).

Talking Heads 2 (9.50 BBC2). Alan Bennett's original Talking Heads monologues, first seen in 1988, are already set texts for A level. Patricia Routledge kicks off a new series.

WEDNESDAY October 7

Black Britain (7.30 BBC2). Following four black Londoners as they take up scholarships at Morehouse College in Atlanta, "America's top black male academic institution".

University Challenge (8.0 BBC2). De Montfort v Portsmouth THURSDAY October 8

For National Poetry Day (R4 all day) Bournemouth University lecturer Sean Street reads a sequence of poems about radio throughout the day on Radio 4.

Horizon: Dinosaurs in your Garden (9.25 BBC2). John Ostrom argues that birds evolved from dinosaurs such as the velociraptor. Others, such as ornithologist Alan Feduccia, disagree.

Comments to John Davies at Davieses@aol.com