Higher channels

John Davies scans the schedules. (All times pm unless stated.) Pick of the week Recent-history revelations are everywhere this weekend: part two of BBC2's Spying Game, the finale of C4's Can't Pay, Won't Pay, and an intriguing new series about the "secret love affair" between the United States and China, Playing the China Card (Saturday 8.00 C4). Part one is about Nixon's courtship of Chairman Mao and includes clandestine footage of Henry Kissinger in China (when he was supposed to be recovering from an illness in Pakistan).

FRIDAY September 24 The Bones of Colonel Fawcett (7.30 BBC2). Series retracing the steps of Percy Fawcett, who vanished in 1925 in the Amazon rainforest on a quest for El Dorado.

SaturDAY September 25 Freedom Train (2.30 R4). The secret escape routes of 19th-century American slaves.

The House Detectives (7.35 BBC2). Building-history series returns with a house and mill by the Tees featured in a Turner painting.

Playing the China Card (8.00 C4). See above.

The Boer War (8.05 BBC2). Second half of Kenneth Griffith's passionately argued account of the war.

sunDAY September 26 Treasures: Sin City Jamaica (4.00 History Channel). Marine archaeologists probe the ruins of Port Royal, Jamaica, a pirates' haven destroyed by earthquake in 1692.

The Spying Game (8.00 BBC2). Part two (of four). East Germany's secret police files.

Can't Pay, Won't Pay (8.00 C4). Final part of Child Support Agency story.

Mysteries of Asia (9.00 Discovery Channel). Three documentaries looking at ancient Asian achievements: Jewels in the Jungle, about Angkor's ruined temples, is followed by The Great Wall of China (10.00) and The Lost Temples of India (11.00), which vists Tanjore and Vijayanagara.

MonDAY September Student Bibles (3.30 R4). Five 15-minute programmes about definitive textbooks, starting with Gray's Anatomy. Followed on Tuesday by D. J.

Grout's History of Western Music, then books by Malinowski (Wednesday), Bannister Fletcher (Thursday) and David Begg (Friday).

University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, versus Sheffield.

Equinox: Near Miss (9.00 C4). The problems of air traffic control.

Night Waves (9.30 R3). Including discussion on Marx's cultural legacy.

TuesDAY September 28 Secret History: The Great Fog (9.00 C4). Did London's great pea-souper of 1952 kill thousands more than officially stated?

Living Proof: Raising the Dead (10.25 BBC1; 11.05 in N. Ireland and Wales).

Peter Safar, the "father of resuscitative medicine".

WednesDAY September 29 Janacek Focus (7.30 R3). A bunch of Janacek programmes - talk as well as performance - begins with the Czech composer's Katya Kabanova performed in English.

Living with the Enemy (9.00 BBC2). A watercolour painter tries to come to terms with conceptual art. As there is no episode of the Royal College of Art docu-series this week, this may or may not be timely.

Thursday September 30 The Material World (4.30 R4). Science fiction, science fact: Mark Brake (University of Glamorgan), Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

The Boer War (8.00 C4). Part two: the sieges of Mafeking, Ladysmith etc.

Pushing Back the Curtain (8.00 R4). Misha Glenny on what led to the downfall of communism in Europe. First of six.

Email: Davieses@aol.com. For an extended guide and web links to programmes, visit the THES website at: www.thesis.co.uk 22.