Higher channels

Tom Davies scans the schedules. (All times pm unless stated.) Pick of the week A Walk through Weimar: From Heaven through the World to Hell (from Saturday, 2.00 R3). Radio 3's "Weimar Weekend" begins with John Tusa presenting a three-hour special marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of the German dramatist and scientist Johann Wolfgang Goethe. It is followed by Faust (6.30 R3), in which Professor Martin Swales narrates Goethe's most famous work. Sunday's highlights include the Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert: Goethe - Life, Love and Music (1.00), featuring works by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Loewe.

FRIDAY August Postscript (9.15am R3). Novelist and critic Philip Hensher discusses Oriental poetry.

SaturDAY August 28 Weimar Weekend (2.00 R3). See pick of the week.

Talking to Home - Baqer Moin (7.45 R4). How the BBC Pashto service in the Middle East seeks to report freely in countries such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

SUNDAY August 29 Centurions - Saul Bellow: Herzog (4.15 R3). Malcolm Bradbury and Christopher Bigsby discuss Bellow's novel Herzog.

Kim Phuc: Girl in the Photograph (5.00 History Channel). The life story of Vietnamese napalm attack victim Kim Phuc.

1939: Did We Have to Fight? (7.25 C4). Marking the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war, a panel debates whether Britain really had to fight.

Big Ideas (7.40 BBC2). Political scientist Dr Oliver Sparrow tells Evan Davis why government needs to become more responsive, business-like and less ideological.

The Union Game (8.10 BBC2). Part two of this rugby series examines the game in South Africa and New Zealand.

MONDAY August 30 Hot and Cold Night (8.00 BBC2). An evening of programmes looking at climate change. Seven Days that Shook the Planet looks at global warming, Return of the Superbugs examines creatures and diseases associated with tropical heat, and The Big Chill considers the prospect of a new ice age for Britain. The evening ends with The Hot and Cold Debate, chaired by Melvyn Bragg.

Wild Thing (8.05 C4). First of a new three-part wildlife series focuses on sex, politics and the hierarchy of chimpanzee life.

China's Long March: Jiangxi - The Cradle of the Revolution (8.00 R4). First in a series looking at China over the past 50 years.

Sea Soldiers (8.00 National Geographic). How, during the cold war, the superpowers attempted to use sea lions, whales and dolphins as underwater weapons carriers.

TUESDAY August 31 India's Dambusters (8.00 R4). The protests and issues surrounding the construction of the Narmada dam in central India.

Secret History - the People's Duchess (9.00 C4). An exploration of the life of Lady Georgiana Spencer, ancestor of Diana and similarly adored 18th-century figure.

WEDNESDAY September 1 The Internet: The Last 20th Century Battleground (11.02am R4). New series studies the impact of the internet.

Essential Guide to Weather (7.30 BBC2). This week's programme looks at the financial implications of temperature change.

Ancient Voices: The Hunt for the First Americans (9.30 BBC2). Forensic artist Dr Richard Neave looks at the recent discovery of a 12,000-year-old skull of a Brazilian woman.

THURSDAY September 2 Boer War (8.00 R4). Professor Dennis Judd examines the level of black involvement in the Boer war in the first of a two-part series.

Email: Davieses@aol.com