Just like the Oscars - only these are the Platos. Carol Smillie hosts the ceremony at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as a bunch of other celebrities hand over the awards to the country’s best and most inspiring teachers. Short film clips will show the winners in action and the unsuspecting recipients given their awards on the spot. Meanwhile, John Cleese, Jonathan Ross, Bryan Ferry and Meera Syal confirm that you never forget a good teacher, recalling episodes from their own schooldays.

Best for schools

Book Box: What’s So Good About Roald Dahl?

C4, Fridays, from November 2, 11.40-11.55am

Three new programmes for seven to 11-year-olds in which Gareth Jones and Gail McKenna find out what made Roald Dahl, who died in 1990, such a good children’s writer. They visit his home, watch a video in which he talks about his work, look at the sources of his inspiration and analyse his language, including the use of simile and exaggeration. As Gareth says, Dahl created excellent baddies. To prove it, Jo James reads extracts from his books in which some of them appear.

Best of the rest

Omnibus: the Billy Elliot Boy BBC1, Tuesday, November 6, 10.35-11.25pm

Hundreds of boys auditioned for the role of Billy Elliot in Stephen Daldry’s film, and in the end the director managed to cut the shortlist to two. Lee Darvill thought he had the part. In the end, he was offered a supporting role in a scene which was finally edited out, and all the prizes went to Jamie Bell. Jamie’s video diary records his experiences from rehearsals to Oscars, his mother’s feelings about his success and the close relationship he developed with the director. What happens next? The history of cinema is full of examples of child actors who made one or two films, then failed to make a career.

Egypt’s Golden Empire BBC2, Sundays, from November 4, 8-8.50pm

A three-parter on ancient Egypt draws on an extraordinary wealth of recently discovered documents (on papyrus, stone and metal) which give a new insight into the history of the country and the daily life of its people. The story begins in 1560BC, with Egypt divided and apparently on the verge of extinction. How did the realm of the Pharaohs go from there to become the world’s first great empire? And why was one Pharaoh, Hatshepsut, left out of the record altogether? (Hint: she was a woman.) Wild Africa BBC2, Wednesdays, from November 7, 9-9.50pm

A new six-part series explores Africa through its main geographical features, starting with mountains and continuing in successive weeks with savannah, deserts, coasts and jungle, to end on December 12 with lakes and rivers. The aim, according to producer Patrick Morris, is “to paint the big picture”. Africa’s mountains have an unsuspected richness of wildlife: baboons and wolves in the mountains of Ethiopia, leopards and even elephants in the highlands of Kenya, and the gorillas of the Virungas. The programmes should provide valuable material for a study of the continent’s geography and wildlife.

Full educational programme schedules can be found at:www.bbc.co.ukeducationlzonesched-aut.shtmlwww.4learning.co.ukprogramm esautumn2001.cfm