Higher Channels

John Davies focuses on radio and television programmes likely to be of use to THES readers. (All times pm unless stated.)

Pick of the week

October is Black History Month and Channel 4 is doing its bit with a season of programmes under the overall title Untold. Most notable is the four-part Britain's Slave Trade (Sunday 8.00 C4), which begins its story in the 16th century. Episode one deals with the role of the Royal Africa Company and its eclipse by the merchants of Bristol - a city that owed its prosperity to slavery. Talking heads include Madge Dresser of the University of the West of England's regional history centre.

FRIDAY October 1

The Oldest City (1.00 History Channel). A "9,000-year-old hidden metropolis" in present-day Turkey that may deserve the title.

SaturDAY October 2 Deaf Century (7.05 C4). About the treatment of hearing-impaired people over the past 100 years. First of three programmes.

Timewatch (8.05 BBC2). More about spying, and newly released MI5 material: German spies who turned double agents during the second world war.

SUNDAY October 3

Shakespeare for the Millennium: Romeo and Juliet (7.30 R3). Sophie Dahl as Juliet, Douglas Henshall as Romeo.

Britain's Slave Trade (8.00 C4). See above.

The Spying Game (8.00 BBC2). This week focusing on the CIA and MI6 and their activities in Afghanistan and Poland.

MONDAY October 4

Black Britain: Voices (7.30 BBC2). The plight of young black men, ten times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia as whites in Britain's mental health system.

University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). Cranfield versus Nottingham.

Walking with Dinosaurs (8.30 BBC1). Cambridge palaeontologist David Norman was among the advisers for this ambitious series that attempts to recreate the era of the dinosaurs using computer animation and other modern devices. See also The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs on Wednesday (8.00 BBC1).

Equinox: Curing the Incurable (9.00 C4). On the potential of stem-cell therapy as a cure for degenerative diseases. Mostly featuring US scientists and the biotechnology companies who see big profits to be made, but Peter Andrews (Sheffield University) also has a few things to say about his work on "turning cancer cells into nerve cells".

TuesDAY October 5 War of the Century (9.00 BBC2). Big new series on the biggest and bloodiest war of the 20th century, Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. It includes revelations about Stalin's contemplation of a peace deal.

Secret History: Scotland's Nazi Murder (9.00 C4). More wartime disclosures: how pro-Nazi PoWs murdered an anti-Hitler compatriot in Scotland in 1944.

Royal College of Art (9.50 BBC2). Part three of patchy fly-on-the-wall series focuses on the RCA's painting department.

Untold: Riot (10.00 C4). The 1981 Toxteth disturbances: eyewitness testimony.

WednesDAY October 6 Nobel Causes (9.00 R4). Why do some scientists get Nobel prizes and others who seem just as deserving (such as Salvador Moncada and Jocelyn Bell Burnell) not? Peter Evans talks with Harry Kroto and Kary Mullis.

Thursday October 7 A Book of Hours (throughout the day, R4). For National Poetry Day, 15 new poems by poets selected by Andrew Motion, starting with Selima Hill on daybreak and ending with a Sean O'Brien poem on closing time.

Email: Davieses@aol.com. For extended guide, visit THES website: www.thesis.co.uk