Higher Channels

Pick of the week
Britain's first officially recognised Holocaust Memorial Day is marked with several programmes on Saturday. BBC2 offers Last Days (5.35), a documentary from the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, co-produced by Steven Spielberg; then, later, a live commemoration (from 7.45), followed by the influential, if flawed Schindler's List (9.00). But perhaps more interesting is Channel 4's Battle for the Holocaust (7.10), which traces how the history of - and attitudes to - the Nazis' final solution has developed, particularly in America. "It takes time to create a narrative out of a historical event," says Gulie Ne'eman Arad of Ben Gurion University. There are also contributions from Henry Kissinger, Peter Novick, Simon Wiesenthal and others. Meanwhile, Radio 4's Saturday-night archive programme repeats Images of Belsen (8.00), and the History Channel offers an Israeli-made film from 1999, Kapo (8.00), about the Jewish leaders who willingly or unwillingly collaborated with the Nazi authorities in the ghettos and concentration camps. On Monday, BBC Knowledge is showing Heinz Schirk's 1984 film The Wannsee Conference (9.30), and a repeat of Reputations: Simon Wiesenthal (11.00). The next day, Taking a Stand (Tuesday 9.00 am R4) features Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry (who also features in Saturday's Channel 4 documentary).
» Holocaust Memorial Day
» Survivors of the Shoah

All times pm unless stated.

FRIDAY January 26
A Revolution in Five Acts (11.00 am R4). The Chimney Sweeps Act 1875 examined by Ian Hislop and historians.
Masterclass: Denys Lasdun (1.00, also 4.00, 7.00, 10.00 BBC Knowledge). Last interview with the architect prior to his recent death.
Victorian Love Stories (3.30 R4). The Statute of Limitations by Ernest Dowson.
Any Questions? (8.00 R4). From City University, London.
» Twenty Minutes : A Historian in Russia (8.15 R3). Catherine Merridale on what Russian children are learning about their past.
Timewatch (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). Thomas More, ignored in Simon Schama's version of Tudor history, gets a whole programme to himself. Historian John Guy (of St Andrew's) argues with the aid of some dramatisations that the Man for All Seasons version of More's life is a "whitewash". The supposed "man of conscience" had an astute lawyer's brain and was also extremely keen on burning heretics.

SATURDAY January
» Breaking the Seal : Domesday (9.30 am BBC2). The Open University begins a re-run of its series on archives, first broadcast last year, with the Domesday Book.
Verdi Day (from 9.00 am R3). A day of discussion and performance to mark the centenary of the composer's death, presented by Dennis Marks and climaxing with a performance of Aida live from the New York Metropolitan Opera (6.00).
Last Days (5.35 BBC2), Battle for the Holocaust (7.10 C4), Holocaust Memorial Day (7.45 BBC2), Images of Belsen (8.00 R4) and Kapo (8.00 History Channel). See Pick of the week .
» Correspondent - Caravan of Death (7.00 BBC2). Chilean judge Juan Guzman and his case against Augusto Pinochet.
Between the Ears: My Month with Carmen (10.00 R3). A "sound diary" by Lou Stein about his mother Carmen, recorded partly in the New York hospital ward where she was dying.

SUNDAY January 28
Five Live Report - Fallen Angels (12 noon R5). Nursing standards in British hospitals.
Classic Serial - The Cornish Trilogy (3.00 R4). Adaptation by Roger Danes of Robertson Davies's trilogy set around a Toronto university.
Songs of Praise (5.30 BBC1). Holocaust Memorial Day special.
On Being Wrong (5.40 R4). Three programmes with Michael Rosen.
» Sunday Feature : The Road to Ruin (5.45 R3). Robert McNab on the French novelist Louis Ferdinand Céline and his life and work under the Germans.
» Time Team   (6.00 C4). Roman villa(s) in a Cotswold field. (More Roman burials in tomorrow's Meet the Ancestors ) (NB: Discovery Channel is continuing to run old Time Teams at midnight on weekdays).
The Natural World: Seals (6.05 BBC2, not Wales).
The Day the World Took Off (8.00 History Channel). Part two: how Abraham Darby laid the foundations of the factory system, and why French automation skills didn't lead anywhere. (Series first shown on Channel 4 last year).
Hitler's Henchman: Goering (8.00 C5). A second series of films from Germany profiles the Gestapo's founder.
The World at War (8.05 BBC2; 10.00 in Wales). Part three: France Falls.
» Panorama   (10.15 BBC1). "The Borrowers" - on Britons who are trapped in debt.
City Of Murder and Mayhem: Real Life (11.15 ITV). Documentary exploring present-day Moscow's "brutal hedonism, violence and corruption".

MONDAY January 29
Start the Week (9.00 am R4). Slovenian sociologist Slavoj Zizek is among Paxman's guests.
» Composer of the Week (9.00 am R3 and rest of week) is Monteverdi.
The Real Captain Bligh (11.00 am R4). The allegedly sadistic captain may not have been all that nasty, as this dramatised reading of extracts from Bligh's diary might show.
Afternoon Play - Victorian Marriage Beds (2.15 R4). Second of three drama-documentaries is about Bishop Edward Benson and his young bride Mary Sidgewick.
The Year 1901 (3.45 R4 and for rest of week). Robert Lacey examines life in Britain 100 years ago, with contributions from Paul Johnson (LSE), Gregory Anderson (Salford) and Alistair Durie (Glasgow).
Earth Story (7.10 BBC2, not Wales). "Journey to the Centre of the Earth": part four of Aubrey Manning's re-run series from 1998 looks inside the earth for "the engine that drives the dance of plate tectonics". Evidence comes from Iceland, the Baltic, western Scotland, the Hawaiian island of Kilauea, India's Deccan peninsula and from an experiment with syrup in Dan McKenzie's Cambridge laboratory.
The Darkness and the Light (8.00 R4). Second of two collages of voices from Victorian fact and fiction -readings from Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria et al .
Last Days (8.00 BBC Knowledge). Documentary repeat from the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, followed by the German-made docu-drama The Wannsee Conference (9.30 BBC Knowledge), then Reputations: Simon Wiesenthal (11.00).
The Search for Atlantis (8.00 C5). First of two programmes about the history of the Atlantis myth.
Universe (8.00 C4). "Big Bang". (repeat)
University Challenge (8.00 BBC2). Hull vs. Sheffield.
2020 Vision (8.05 World Service, repeated Tues 2.05 am, 3.05). Series about world disease begins with a survey of "the major health challenges of the next 20 years".
» Meet the Ancestors (8.30 BBC2). Featuring - like the previous day's Time Team - Roman burials; this time in Bath.
Blue Remembered Hills (9.00 UK Drama). Dennis Potter classic from 1979. More Potter from Tuesday with episodes one and two of his 1989 serial Blackeyes (9.00 UK Drama) - episodes three and four follow on Wednesday.
Journeys to the Bottom of the Sea (9.00 BBC2). A Cromwellian wreck in the Sound of Mull (repeat).
The Real Stephen Hawking (9.00 C4). The famous cosmologist profiled, with some familiar footage and new comments from his son Timothy, scientists Roger Penrose, Bernard Carr, John Gribbin and some Saatchi & Saatchi copywriters. (Meanwhile, BBC Knowledge is continuing to re-run Stephen Hawking's Universe on Wednesdays - see below).
» Night Waves   (9.30 R3). Featuring anthropologist Hugh Brody on his latest book, about the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer.
Everyman: The Dangerous Adventures of Baroness Cox (10.35 BBC1, 11.05 in N. Ireland). The life peer investigates slave trading in the Sudan.

TUESDAY January 30
Taking a Stand (9.00 am R4). Norman Finkelstein, author of The Holocaust Industry , talks to Fergal Keane.
The Secrets of Maps (9.30 am). Simon Calder begins a series on map history with Gerard Mercator.
Dancing Shadows (1.30 R4). Film sound explored in a new series, beginning with sound designer Walter Murch ( The Conversation ,   Apocalypse Now ) talking to Christopher Cook.
The Year 1901 (3.45 R4). Part two: Town, Country and Suburbia.
Blackeyes (9.00 UK Drama). Episodes one and two of Dennis Potter's 1989 self-directed drama - episodes three and four on Wednesday.
Congo (9.00 BBC2). Start of natural-history series on the Congo River basin -"one of Africa's least explored regions".
» Night Waves (9.30 R3). Discussing the conflicts between science and religion, with Harvard's Stephen Jay Gould and others.
» Blood on the Carpet (9.50 BBC2). "A Very Bitter Pill". British biotech's boardroom battles -specifically between entrepreneur-founder Keith McCullagh and chief scientist Andrew Millar concerning research data trials for Marimastat; a possible cancer cure.
Boston Law (10.35 BBC1 -11.15 in Wales and Scotland). More interesting behind-the-scenes stuff from the Massachusetts courts. The series is now running just once a week - but the good news is that it will keep going until March.

WEDNESDAY January 31
Meridian Music: Verdi (9.05 am, repeated Thursday 1.05am). Second of two programmes with Michael Oliver.
Memories Are Made of These (11.00 am R4). Ian Peacock investigates how memories are formed in the brain. (First of a new series).
Stephen Hawking's Universe (2.00, also 5.00, 8.00 BBC Knowledge). Repeat series from 1997 reaches episode five, which concentrates on "dark matter".
The Year 1901 (3.45 R4). Part three: Upward Mobility.
Thinking Allowed (4.00 R4). Laurie Taylor and guests.
The Disease Detectives (9.00 R4). Second in series about epidemiology focuses on Sir Richard Doll, largely responsible for discovering the link between smoking and lung cancer.

THURSDAY February 1
The Year 1901 (3.45 R4). Part four: Welfare and Reform.
The Material World (4.30 R4). Including Andrew Barnes (De Montfort) and dermatologist Susan Mayou on the skin's water content.
The Emerald in the Crown (8.00 R4). Declan Kiberd  (Dublin) on Anglo-Irish relations from the famine to Oscar Wilde - part of Radio 4's Victorian season.
The 1900 House Special (8.00 C4). Repeat of the opening programme of last year's series.
Costing the Earth (9.00 R4). Allergies - their causes and cures.
» Horizon : The Missing Link (9.00 BBC2; 9.30 in Wales). In the fossil record, there's a missing evolutionary link between fish and tetrapods. This is about the search for it in the rocks of the Devonian era. An informative journey, apart from a perhaps unnecessary detour featuring an American creationist.
Music Masters (9.00 BBC Knowledge). Profile of the composer » Peter Maxwell Davies .
The Riddle of Pompeii (9.00 C4). First of two Secrets of the Dead specials centres on volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson's new theory about the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius. Pity it clashes with Horizon .
I, Claudius (9.00 UK Drama). The Roman empire, as first seen in the autumn of 1976. Classic drama serial that is perhaps ultimately responsible for all the programmes about Rome we're now getting.
» Planets  - Brief Encounters (9.50 BBC2, 10.20 in Wales). Saturn.
Clive Anderson's Conspiracies (10.30, also 12.15 am BBC Choice). Satanic panics.
» Open Science  (from 12.30 am BBC2). Open University science-night programmes begin with Final Frontier - a Mars special, with the latest discoveries and news of the British Beagle 2 mission to the red planet.