Higher channels

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

Pick of the week

Does it matter that there are no historians to give us a measured judgement on Anthony Eden's career in BBC2's Reputations (Tuesday 9.00 BBC2)? Perhaps not, since Marion Milne's film of "A Rather English Statesman" offers a full view of the former prime minister's career through an array of interviews with political colleagues and other intimates. Those speaking on camera for the first time include an ex-lover, but it is Eden's failures and successes as foreign secretary that are the focus: one contributor goes so far as to say that his role in ending France's Indo-China war was "the last time the United Kingdom was able to change the course of world events".

Friday June 2

Rough Science (7.30 BBC2). The challenges for the castaway scientists this week include making a compass and improvising an electric battery.

EUtopia (12.05am BBC2). Final documentary in current series explores themes of national identity with Danish Vikings, a Somalian-born Turin councillor, Germans learning to speak Irish and much more. Possibly the only time this year you'll hear Cornish spoken on national television.

Saturday June 3

Missing Persons (2.30 R4). This week's unsung hero is Albert Mansbridge, founder of the Workers' Educational Association.

Archive Hour: Gielgud - the Acting Blood (8.00 R4). A 1995 interview with the late Sir John Gielgud, plus archive recordings.

Sunday June 4

The Nude (12 noon C5). Art critic Tim Marlow, whose previous series was a model of its kind, turns to western art's (and Channel 5's) perennial subject in a four-part series, beginning with the classical Greeks.

The Day the World Took Off (8.30 C4). The roots of the modern world, part two: how Abraham Darby laid the foundations of the factory system, and why French automation skills didn't lead anywhere.

Soul of Britain (10.35 BBC1). New series exploring the "state of faith" in modern Britain.

Monday June 5

The Case of Sigmund Freud (11.00am R4). Why has Freud been so influential? Lisa Appignanesi examines the legacy of the father of psychoanalysis in a new series.

Left on the Shelf (3.45 R4 and rest of week). Eng. Lit. professor John Sutherland revisits five bestsellers of yesteryear for clues about the tastes of previous generations.

Tuesday June 6

D-Day (from 3.00 History Channel). A day of programmes about the events surrounding June 6 1944. Also on a wartime theme, a new Radio 2 series, The Summer of 1940 (9.00) begins by remembering Dunkirk.

Local Heroes (8.00 BBC2). This week, Adam Hart-Davis on the achievements of some Nobel prizewinners - Ronald Ross (medicine, 1902), John Cockcroft (physics, 1950), Richard Synge (chemistry, 1952) and Dorothy Hodgkin (chemistry, 1964).

Reputations - Anthony Eden (9.00 BBC2). See pick of the week.

Wednesday June 7

Wilderness Men (9.00 BBC2). New series from the BBC's Natural History Unit about explorers begins by tracing the footsteps of Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke, the first white men to cross North America.

Thursday June 8

Leading Edge (9.00 R4). Geoff Watts reports on the argument over the link between HIV and Aids that is raging in South Africa.

Mysteries of the Lost Empires (9.00 C4). How did ancient Egyptians raise their obelisks?

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