Higher Channels

Pick of the week
Ten years ago playwright David Hare complained about "the idea that is now very popular... that Bob Dylan is just as good a poet as Keats." Former Cambridge Prof. Christopher Ricks explores this in his » Sunday Feature: Dylan Among the Poets (5.45 R3). His close analysis of the Dylan's recent song Not Dark Yet , shows it is packed with echoes of Keats's Ode to a Nightingale . With books on Milton, Keats, Tennyson, Beckett and others to his credit, Ricks draws on a wide range of literary figures, from Wordsworth to John Berryman, to make his points and assert that Dylan "has a voice that can't be ignored". A pity perhaps, that he takes more account of Dylan's words than the music.

All times pm unless stated

FRIDAY February 9
Novel Russia (11.00 am R4). Contemporary Russia through the themes of Anna Karenina .
Culture Fix: Kitsch (1.30, also 4.30, 7.30 BBC Knowledge). The brief history of an idea.
Goodbye Village, Hello City (8.30 World Service, repeated Sat 2.30 am). Start of a five-part series about the global trend to urbanisation, with John Pickford reporting from Ghana, India, England and the American Midwest.
Mary Shelley Night (8.00 BBC Knowledge). A new documentary about the author's early life, A Monstrous Life , is followed by The Last Man (8.50) in which Benjamin Woolley looks at Mary Shelley's neglected "apocalyptic" novel of that title. Next up is Inventing Monsters (9.30), an examination of modern fictional monsters and as a finale, the 1931 classic Frankenstein (9.30) gets an airing.
Twenty Minutes (8.15 R3). Poet Dana Gioia on the life and work of Longfellow.
Lost Worlds: The Future of the Past (9.00 National Geographic). Last of John Romer's history-of-archaeology series, shown last year on C4 as » Great Excavations .
Timewatch: Public Enemy Number One (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). About John Dillinger, the USA's "first official anti-hero".
» Night Waves (9.45 R3). Changing identities in Britain - beginning with a visit to Hull.
Hollywood at War (10.00 R2). How the US movie industry responded to World War Two. First of six programmes.

SATURDAY February 10
» Breaking the Seal : Military Records (9.30 am BBC2). Part three of Open University series on archives first shown last year.
Pounds, Shillings and New Pence (10.30 am R4). Evan Davis marks the 30th anniversary of decimal currency's introduction with archive recordings and reminiscence.
» The Sky at Night (11.25 am BBC2). Patrick Moore and John Zarnecki talk about the Cassini space probe and its recent Jupiter fly-past.
Facing the Ocean (3.30 R4). Is there an "Atlantic mindset"? That's the thesis of Oxford prehistory expert Barry Cunliffe's new series exploring the links between societies bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The first episode begins with bronze age remains at Dun Aonghus on the Aran Islands. Cunlife talks with Dublin archaeologist John Waddell before visiting Dover, where a bronze-age boat was recently found and then the far west of Brittany, where a megalith from the third millennium BC is disappearing under the waves.
» Correspondent - Who's Putin? (6.55 BBC2). Bridget Kendall investigates the Russian president's rise to power.
Channel 4 Political Awards (8.05 C4). Westminster MPs, members of the Scottish parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies vote for the best of their peers; plus some political satire.
An Hour in the Huntley Archive (8.00 R4). John Huntley's private archive of rare film and radio recordings.
Between the Ears: Monogamy (10.00 R3). Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips's thoughts on fidelity combined with words from religion and popular culture in a feature by Russell Davies.
Bull Fight (11.40 C4). First of three programmes presented by Robert Elms follows two matadors - apprentice Antonio Bricio and established bullfighter Francisco Ordonez.

SUNDAY February 11
Stones of the Raj: The French Connection (4.30 am C4). Lucknow is the focus of this week's  architectural tour of colonial India.
Two Thousand Years (11.30 am ITV). Christianity in the ninth century (revised repeat).
Five Live Report - Anna's Story (12 noon R5). The Anna Climbie case and Britain's child protection services.
Jonathan Dimbleby Special: Ask the Opposition (5.00 ITV). William Hague and Charles Kennedy interviewed.
» Sunday Feature: Bob Dylan Among the Poets (5.45 R3). Christopher Ricks explores echoes of Keats in Dylan's songs. See Pick of the week.
» Time Team (6.00 C4). "A Palace Sold for Scrap". In search of the remains of a Tudor palace in Rycote, Oxfordshire.
Learning from the Great Apes ; Jane Goodall: Reason for Hope ; and Living with Gorillas (7.00, 8.00 and 9.00 National Geographic). Three programmes as a "tribute to Jane Goodall" - the first two are repeats, but the last is new, and features primatologist Magdalena Bermejo and her cinematographer husband, German Illera. (More Congo primates on Tuesday BBC2)
Natural World (7.05 BBC2). "Dangerous Australians" - the continent's poisonous flora and fauna (repeat).
Pillories of the State (7.15 R4). This week, the internal workings of the publishing industry.
Hitler's Henchmen: Speer (8.00 C5). Profil of the Nazi architect.
The Day the World Took Off (8.00 History Channel). Part four of the series first shown on C4 last year examines the advantage that clock- and glass-making skills gave to Western technological progress; skills that other civilisations, such as those in China and Japan, lacked or undervalued.
» Panorama (10.15 BBC1). The recently tracked down internet paedophile ring.
The South Bank Show (10.45 ITV). Ken Russell profiled.
Back to Bangalore (2.40 am C4). Documentary about photojournalist Bertram Scott, returning to India for the first time in 53 years after working for the Times of India in the 1930s.

MONDAY February 12
Schumann's Lost Romance (4.30 am C4). Did Clara Schumann distort our view of husband Robert's work by suppressing some of his music after his death in 1856? Cellist Stephen Isserlis investigates, assisted by experts including John O'Shea and Joachim Draheim (repeat from December 1998).
Start the Week (9.00 am R4). Guests include anthropologist Hugh Brody and artist Tacita Dean.
Composer of the Week (9.00 am R3 and rest of week) is Rachmaninov.
Mapping the Town (11.00 am R4). Julian Richards in Silchester.
Battlefront: Battle of Midway (2.00 UK Horizons). New-to-the-UK series about the battles of World War Two commences in the Pacific.
Earth Story (7.10 BBC2). "The Roof of the World", part five of Aubrey Manning's series concentrates on Tibet and the geology of the Himalayas (repeat from 1998).
Bloody Battlefield: Omaha Beach (8.00 C5). D-Day landings recalled.
The Gathering by the Ganges (8.00 R4). Mark Tully on the pilgrimages of Maha Kumbh Mela.
Universe (8.00 C4). "Planets" (repeat).
University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). UCL vs. Manchester.
» Meet the Ancestors (8.30 BBC2). At St Paul's Cathedral (London), Julian Richards and a selection of experts investigate the tomb of Lawrence Spencer; Wren's clerk of works. (Last in series.)
Nature (9.00 R4). The wild boar in Britain.
The Real Spartacus (9.00 C4). About the leader of the 73 BC Roman slave revolt.
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). Including Tom Paulin on Hardy's poetry.
Everyman: The James Mawdesley Story (10.35 BBC1, 11.05 in N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales). On the campaigner against the Burmese regime.
Tribe (11.20 BBC2, and for rest of week). Glimpse of young people's life in Britain today begins with two short documentaries about the "garage" music scene and fighting on one of Europe's roughest estates.

TUESDAY February 13
The Secrets of Maps (9.30 am). "Colonial Secrets": Simon Calder on the maps of British colonies that were ordered in 1670.
Harsh Realities (9.00 R4). Medical series on NHS priorities and treatment.
Congo (9.00 BBC2). Last in series concentrates on the primates of the Congo basin and traces of past human civilisations.
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). With items on Pirandello and poet Menna Elfyn.
The Fall and Rise of Sex (10.00 C4). Sexual dysfunction documentary.
Boston Law (10.35 BBC1 - 11.05 in N. Ireland, Wales and Scotland). More behind-the-scenes stuff from the Boston courts.

WEDNESDAY February 14
Memories Are Made of These (11.00 am R4). Involuntary recollection.
Thinking Allowed (4.00 R4). Laurie Taylor talks with the LSE's Richard Freeman about British trade unionism and its recent resurgence.
» Tomorrow's World (7.00 BBC1). Return of new inventions series features an intravenous drip monitor and a new system for evacuating trains after a crash.
» The Money Programme : Smoke Rings (7.30 BBC2). Tobacco smuggling in Britain.
The Disease Detectives (9.00 R4). More on epidemiology and its interaction with public policy.
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). Niall Ferguson talks about his latest book on money and power in the last 300 years.
Kirsty MacColl's Cuba (10.00 R2). Part three: from Castro's revolution to the 1962 missile crisis.
Siege (10.35 ITV). The experience of armed siege.

THURSDAY February 15
Married to the Music (11.30 am R4). First of a series about composers' wives focuses on Mrs Elgar.
The Material World (4.30 R4). Evidence of climate change three million years ago, recently discovered by Jeremy Marlow (Newcastle University).
Great Crimes of the 20th Century: The Great Train Robbery (8.00 C5).
The Jewish Journey (8.00 R4). Part two: "The Secret Jews of Tudor England" narrated by Andrew Sachs.
» Twenty Minutes: Don't Panic (8.00 R3). Different perspectives on the word "panic" and its derivation from the god Pan. With Oxford classicist Oliver Taplin, psychiatrist  Raj Persaud and composer-saxophonist John Harle (who will later perform Harrison Birtwistle's Panic ).
In Business (8.30 R4). The company that is mapping Iceland's gene pool and the ethical questions that arise. Peter Day reports from Reykjavik.
Talking Art (9.40 BBC Knowledge). Stuart Hall discusses the work of some young black photographers, among them Rotimi Fani-Kayode and Chila Burman.
» Horizon : Ecstasy and Agony (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). Can the ecstasy drug alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease?
Danger, Unexploded Bomb (9.00 C4). New series about the bomb disposal experts of World War Two. Featuring "newly discovered German documents" revealing more about Nazi technology.
Leading Edge (9.00 R4). Science series returns with Geoff Watts pondering the fate of the Russian space station Mir , scheduled to plunge to earth.
I, Claudius (9.00 UK Drama). Episodes four and five: "Poison is Queen" and "Some Justice".
» Planets - Brief Encounters (9.50 BBC2, 10.20 in Wales). Life on Mars.
» Open Science (from 12.30 am BBC2). Including, at 1.00, Test Tube Miracle?, on ICSI; the latest infertility treatment.
Disinfo Nation (1.00 am C4). Including "palaeopsychologist" Howard Bloom on his new book The Global Brain .