Higher Channels

This week, The THES is launching an extended version of Higher Channels on its website - www.thesis.co.uk. Check out the full listings, including full details of the new season of University Challenge.

John Davies scans the broadcasting schedules (All times pm unless stated.) Pick of the week

It has to be Shakespeare. BBC Radio 3's ambitious project to record new productions of 17 of his plays starts this week with Hamlet (7.30 R3) starring Michael Sheen, Juliet Stevenson and Kenneth Cranham. This is preceded by Shakespeare for the Millennium (5.45 R3), a discussion, recorded at the National Theatre, of the bard's reputation and power to survive. Coming shortly on R3 are versions of Midsummer Night's Dream (September 19) and Julius Caesar (September 26).

SATURDAY September 11

Correspondent - Condemned to Live (6.45 BBC2). How survivors of the 1994 Rwandan massacres are seeking justice.

SUNDAY September 12

Rosen on Chopin (2.45 R3). Pianist and critic Charles Rosen assesses Chopin's work and legacy. First of three illustrated talks.

Shakespeare for the Millennium (5.45 R3) and Hamlet (7.30 R3). See pick of the week.

Can't Pay, Won't Pay (8.00 C4). What went wrong with legislation that set up the Child Support Agency. First of three-part series.

Napoleon's Lost Fleet (9.00 Discovery Channel). Underwater filming reveals the remains of the French fleet sunk off Egypt by the British in 1798. Followed by The Napoleon Murder Mystery (10.00), on the causes of the ex-emperor's death.

MONDAY September 13

The Evacuation (9.00am R4). Final part in series about the 1939 evacuation of children from Britain's cities.

China's Long March (8.00 R4). Part two (of six) in series marking the 50th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China.

University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). First in the season features Newcastle and Warwick.

Equinox - Space: The Final Junkyard (9.00C4). Experts discuss the dangers of the more than 5,000 tonnes of scrap metal that are now floating about in space.

Panorama - Taking Baby (10.00 BBC1). Are children being left with abusing parents? Should the laws on adoption be changed?

Omnibus - Van Dyke Undressed (10.40 BBC1). Profile of the 17th-century portraitist.

TUESDAY September 14

The Bells of Chernobyl (9.00 Discovery Channel). Eyewitness accounts of the world's worst nuclear accident, in 1986.

Royal College of Art: The Chosen Few (9.30 BBC2). Documentary series, filmed over 18 months, "lifts the lid" on the RCA.

Hidden Love: Animal Passions (10.00 C4). Jeffrey Masson and Andrew Lindsey of Mansfield College, Oxford, discuss zoophilia, the physical and emotional love of animals.

WEDNESDAY September 15

Do Elephants Weep? (9.00 R4). University College London's Chris McManus presents a three-part series on animal emotions.

Close Up: Mad Tracey from Margate (9.30 BBC2). That's Tracey Emin, nominated for this year's Turner Prize.

THURSDAY September 16

The Material World (4.30 R4). From the British Association's annual festival of science.

Email: Davieses@aol.com 24 featuresThe Times HigherJSeptember 10 1999 'That humans and chimps share 98 per cent of their DNA does not explain their differencesI Humans and mushrooms share 60 per cent of their DNA' DETTMER OTTO Half breeds: why the zonkey, but not the rabbiphant? Charles Darwin called the problem of defining species "the mystery of mysteries"