Higher channels

John Davies gives the schedules a quality audit (all times pm unless stated).

Pick of the week Money is still a major preoccupation this week. The day after part two of Peter Jay's Road to Riches (Sunday 8.00), Radio 4 starts a three-part series on the Bank of England (The Old Lady, Monday 8.00), with unique access to the governor and the bank's economists. Channel 4 reconstructs the South Sea Bubble in When Money Went Mad (Saturday 7.00) and wonders what relevance it has to today's economy.

friDAY July 14 Proms 2000 (7.30 R3, also BBC2). First night of the BBC's summer musicfest.

One of this year's themes is music and God: Janacek's Glagolitic Mass is the main work tonight.

In Search of the Dragon (10.00 National Geographic). Looking for dinosaur remains in the Gobi Desert and the Canadian Arctic.

SATURDAY July 15 Becoming Bourgeois (2.30 R4). How a 15th-century Swiss family moved from peasantry to bourgeoisie. With Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie and Natalie Zemon Davis.

When Money Went Mad (7.00 C4). See pick of the week.

News from Number Ten (7.25 BBC2). Michael Cockerell examines government's news management machine.

SunDAY July 16 Modern British Architects (12 noon C5). Sir Norman Foster.

Sunday Feature: The Romantic Road (5.45 R3). Julian Evans on Dutch literature's lack of a towering figure.

The Road to Riches (8.00 BBC2). In part two of his series, Peter Jay visits the Micronesian island of Yap to demonstrate that "money is what everybody believes is money" - for the Yapese, it's limestone discs.

monDAY July 17 Mapping the Town (11.00am R4). Julian Richards on the archaeology of Leicester.

The Greeks (3.00, 6.00, 9.00 and midnight BBC Knowledge). This ancient civilisation gets so little television attention (compared with, say, Egyptians or Incas) that even a digital channel series is welcome.

Future Tense (7.00 Discovery Channel). Topical science series this week focuses on human reproduction technology. Reports from Japan, Australia and California.

The Old Lady (8.00 R4). See pick of the week.

Secrets of the Dead: Murder at Stonehenge (9.00 C4). History-meets-forensic-science series returns with archaeologist Mike Pitts investigating the first skeleton to be recovered from the famous site.

tuesDAY July 18 Tales from the Back of Beyond (11.00am R4). More archaeology: University of East London's Alan Robinson in search of a Mayan city in the Mexican jungle.

Playing Hitler's Tune (1.30 R4). Last in series about music under the Nazis, presented by Oxford's Valentine Cunningham.

It Couldn't Happen Here (9.00 R4). Killer influenza, in 1918 and the future?

Brain Story - All in the Mind (9.00 BBC2). Oxford's Susan Greenfield gets her own series to explain how all human experience can "be boiled down" (a metaphor she uses at least three times) to brain activity.

WednesDAY July 19 Divorce - Right or Privilege? (11.00am R4). Melissa Benn on the history of divorce.

Phobias (8.00 BBC1). Oxford psychologist Paul Salkovskis tries to help a woman overcome her fear of earthworms.

ThursDAY July 20 Crossing Continents (11.00am R4). The Aids epidemic in the Ukraine.

Analysis (8.30 R4). Devolution.

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