C4 Tuesday October 29 and Wednesday October 30, 4-5.40am This series for ages 11-17 analyses how film-makers depicted some of the key events of the 20th century: the Russian Revolution, the Depression, Dunkirk, the Blitz, Palestine, the start of the Cold War, Suez, African independence, Vietnam and Northern Ireland. Not all of the material is documentary. Some, like Sergei Eisenstein’s reconstruction of the assault on the Winter Palace, were made years after the events, warning that film is not always reliable as historical evidence. All in all, the 10 films add up to a valuable resource for history and media studies.

Place and People: Italy

C4 Mondays, October 28 to November 25, 10.30-10.50am.

Six films about the human geography of modern Italy, starting in the South and travelling northwards to the Alps, looking at questions of economic development, migration, agriculture, industry and tourism. They are aimed at 14 to 16-year-olds and the accompanying textbook (Place and People: Comparative Case Studies by David Waugh, pound;8.99) draws on examples from this and other programmes in the Place and People strand (“Changing China”, “Geographical Eye Over Asia” and “Over Britain”). The films are also available on video (pound;19.99) and there is an Italia Online website, www.channel4.comitalia

Rough Science BBC2 from Friday, October 25, 7.30-8pm

A popular Open University series returns and the first challenges facing the team of five scientists are to go panning for gold, invent a metal detector and make an accurate device for weighing what they find. They have three days to do it, with a minimum of resources. The result of this and successive challenges over the six programmes should be that we learn a good deal of basic science.

Great Britons: Darwin BBC2 Friday October 25, 9-10pm

The BBC’s latest idiocy is a glorified opinion poll to discover the greatest Briton of all time. More interesting is to check out the most unlikely names on the shortlist. The good news, however, is that the scheme is an excuse for short biographies of some of the more plausible contenders. Tonight, Andrew Marr puts the case for Charles Darwin, a failed doctor (he didn’t like the sight of blood) who revolutionised our view of humankind’s place in the universe. “Darwin was great,” Marr tells us, “because he had the courage not to stop thinking, not to flinch, when his thought was tearing down the mental world he lived in.” Yes, but will it be enough to beat Cliff Richard?

Rooted C5 Sundays, 12noon-12.30pm

This fine series made by Christian Aid follows 13 children as they go back from England to the countries where their families originated: Bolivia, China, Ukraine, JamaicaI They meet their relatives and get an insight into their own cultural and spiritual roots. Although it is being shown on C5 on Sunday mornings, the series has been made with an eye to RE and there is a teachers’ pack, including an edited version of the films on video (pound;15.99, from Katie Splevins, tel: 0207 523 2371).

For full schedules: www.channel4.co.uklearningmain programmesautumn2002.cfm www.bbc.co.ukschoolswhatsontvindex.shtml