This month is Black History Month, and it is being marked on the History Channel by this documentary about the American Civil Rights Movement’s 1965 March on Montgomery, Alabama (pictured). On the same evening, at 8pm, The Biography Channel is broadcasting the first of 10 biographies of black men and women, starting with Rosa Parks whose refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in 1955 inspired the subsequent Civil Rights Movement. Nelson Mandela, Colin Powell and Whoopi Goldberg are among the others featured in the series.

English Programme: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight C4 Thursday, October 17, 10-10.25am

The great 14th century Arthurian poem is retold for 14 to 19-year-olds as an animated tale (also available on cassette at pound;14.99). The original alliterative poem is written in the language of the North-West Midlands and is slightly harder to read than Chaucer, so even good students may need to approach it obliquely at first. The film is enjoyable to watch and gives the outline of a complex and strangely compelling narrative drawn from Celtic mythology. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge thrown down by a mysterious Green Knight who arrives at Arthur’s Court one Christmas. His subsequent adventures can be read literally, as the account of a knight’s moral education, or figuratively, as a tale about magic, nature and the changing seasons. With luck, some of those who watch this animated version will be inspired to discover the poem itself.

What? Where? When ? Why? Talking Rubbish BBC2 Wednesdays, October 16, November 6 and 13, 11.35-11.50am

If nothing else, the six and seven-year-olds who are the intended audience for this new three-part Scottish-based series for environmental studies will like the title. They should learn about getting rid of waste, and be able to discuss the problem - without doing what it says in the title.

Music File BBC2 Tuesday, October 15, 2-4am

This week’s subject in the BBC’s overnight broadcasts for secondary schools is music - starting with a practical introduction to composition, looking at rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, mood and composition. At the same time on Wednesday, Mad About Music surveys the musical world more generally, and on the following night, in Marsalis on Music and Cool Keys, Wynton Marsalis and Jools Holland illustrate various musical styles. All the programmes are designed for 13 to 16-year-olds. There is a teachers’

resource pack for Cool Keys available from PO Box 50, Wetherby, West Yorkshire, LS23 7EZ, at pound;24.99.

Tony Robinson’s Local History Search C4 Thursdays, 11.40pm-12noon

Draped lightly in the gown of scholarship that he has acquired as presenter of Time Team, Tony Robinson shows seven to fourteen-year-olds how to find out about the places where they live. Like The Antiques Roadshow, each programme is filmed in a different locality (Cookstown, Ebbw Vale, Perth and Portsmouth), where people bring artefacts or documents to provide the starting-point for investigation into the history of the area. The aim is to teach about using historical sources to discover local history and the effects of national events on different places. The accompanying resource book contains activity sheets, which make use of census material, maps, etc, and encourage writing and language skills.