Higher channels

John Davies looks for programmes of interest to academics (all times pm unless stated).

Pick of the week.

It slipped into the schedules last week too late for me to mention (except on The THES website), but John Romer's six-part history of archaeology, Great Excavations (Thursday 8.00 C4), is nothing to be ashamed of. This week, Romer focuses on the 19th-century European eagerness to appropriate ancient treasures, the chief culprits being Lord Elgin in Greece and Richard Lepsius, who took 60 bargeloads from Egypt home to Germany. Romer's hero, on the other hand, is the Frenchman Auguste Mariette, who excavated the temples of Karnak and stayed in Egypt with the antiquities he had discovered.

SUNDAY April 9.

Sunday Feature: Edwin at Eighty (5.45 R3). Edwin Morgan, Glasgow's great "citizen poet", reads some of his poems and is interviewed and discussed by admirers.

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness (7.00 C4). Epicurus on happiness - the third of Alain de Botton's self-help primers.

Howard Goodall's Big Bangs (8.00 C4). Impact of recording on the evolution of music.

Seeing Salvation (8.10 BBC2). The nativity in art: part two of Neil MacGregor's series.

Blue Skies (11.15 R3). Magnification and the "right size". Georgina Ferry talks with astronomers and molecular biologists about the aesthetics of scientific images.

MONDAY April 10.

Morning Performance (11.30 R3 and rest of week). A week of performances and interviews from Britain's music colleges begins with a visit to the Royal College of Music. The Royal Northern College of Music is featured on Tuesday, the Royal Academy of Music on Wednesday, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music on Thursday and the Guildhall School of Music on Friday.

Indian Journeys (7.10 BBC2). In Delhi, William Dalrymple contrasts Sufism's traditions of tolerance with Hindu fanaticism.

Equinox (9.00 C4). "The Box": why are aeroplanes' black boxes not better designed?

Madame Bovary (9.00 BBC2, and Tuesday 9.00). Flaubert's masterpiece is adapted in two episodes by Heidi Thomas.

TUESDAY April 11.

Red Chapters (7.00 Discovery Channel). The events surrounding Lenin's illness and death, and Stalin's manoeuvrings against the collective leadership.

Case Notes (9.00 R4). "Evidence-based medicine" - what does this mean?

WEDNESDAY April 12.

Thinking Allowed (4.00 R4). The culture of the political poster: Laurie Taylor talks with James Aulich (Manchester Metropolitan) and Peter Kennard of the Royal College or Art.

The Reith Lectures (8.00 R4). This year, BBC Radio's prestige brainfest changes from a single lecturer to five different speakers on a single theme -"Respect for the Earth". First up, Chris Patten asks if democracy is good for the environment.

THURSDAY April 13.

Great Excavations (8.00 C4). Pick of the week.

Analysis (8.30 R4). Brendan O'Leary of the London School of Economics on the future of ethnic conflict.

Leading Edge (9.00 R4). "The Search for Dark Matter". Geoff Watts on attempts to detect weakly interacting massive particles (Wimps) under a mountain in northern Italy.

Night Waves (9.30 R3). Can new architecture help regenerate Belfast?

7Up 2000 (9.35 BBC1). With the success of the follow-ups to Granada's 1964 documentary 7-Up - the most recent being 35-Up and 42-Up - the BBC hopes to repeat the trick with a new group of seven-year-olds.

More programmes at: www.thesis.co.uk Email: Davieses@aol.com