Pick of the week

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries BBC1, Monday, April 8, 8.30-10pm

“It’s too intense, life in these schools, closed off from the outside world,” Inspector Lynley remarks, investigating the death of a boy at an expensive boarding school. Intense? Closed off from reality? You could say something similar about the traditional English detective story, with its fondness for murders that take place in public schools or monasteries, rather than outside pubs on the Old Kent Road.

The English murder mystery, like the public school, has a preoccupation with class. In this series, Lynley (Nathaniel Parker) is an aristocrat who happens to be in the police force, where he has a rather fraught relationship with prickly Sergeant Havers (Sharon Small), a working-class lass with a big chip on her shoulder. They meet other stereotypes in the course of this investigation: the head who can only see his pupil’s death as “a great setback for the school”, a gay teacher, the subject of gossip about his sexual proclivities, and a bullying prefect (or two).

Add a smattering of drugs, sex and violence, with no lessons on anyone’s timetable, and you have a decent 90 minutes of Easter holiday entertainment - a perfect escape for teachers who would rather not be reminded of where they actually work.

Best of the rest

Ever Wondered? BBC2, Saturday, April 6, 10-10.30am

A new series in which Alan Coxon and Kathy Sykes deliver a broad-based course in home economics (or, if you prefer, food technology), with cross-curricular applications.

This week, they talk about bread, showing how to bake a white loaf, explaining the science of what happens inside it during the process of proving, and looking back over the history of bread-making from prehistoric times to the invention of the pre-wrapped sliced loaf. A sprinkling of archive film completes the recipe.

Gorgeous George BBC2, Friday, April 5, 9-10.30pm

This evening’s dramatised documentary is the portrait of an advocate with all the old-fashioned forensic skills, and a surprisingly messy private life. David Suchet plays George Carman QC in scenes from his cases, while a mixed bag of acquaintances - friends, former spouses and the occasional convict - pay tribute to the barrister’s capacity for drink, his brutal treatment of his wives, and his liking for low gambling joints. But the best moments are those that reconstruct Carman’s moments in court and his ability to outwit a witness.

Jeremy Thorpe benefited from his talents; Jonathan Aitken, Neil Hamilton and David Mellor were left with the puzzled look of bulls momentarily wondering where the matador had put his sword.

Best on radio

In Safe Hands Radio 4, Wednesday, April 10, 11-11.30am

The start of a three-parter which gives an insight into decisions taken by social workers in Nottingham as they tackle cases of child abuse, teenage misbehaviour and mental illness. The first programme focuses on child protection officers as they follow up a suspected case of abuse, listening in to discussions of the case and how to handle it.

Next week, social workers advise parents on alternatives to having their children taken into care; and in the final programme we go out on to the streets of Nottingham with the night-time emergency team.

This is a thought-provoking and timely series, coinciding as it does with the inquiry into the case of Victoria Climbie.

Reviews of schools programming will return on April 19 in the new magazine ‘TES Teacher’