Based on a book by Michael Foreman and directed by Dave Unwin, this poetic animated film tells the story of the members of a football team who volunteer for the Army in 1914. They find themselves in the trenches at the time of the Christmas truce playing football with the enemy, before their first experience of battle, while at home their families wait and read their letters from the front. Animation has a unique ability to combine realism and fantasy which is particularly suited to a narrative such as this, where the aim is to convey the pathos of a situation rather than to describe the actual events of the war. Kate Winslet is among those providing the voices and the film, divided into two parts, is designed for English and history with nine to 14 year olds. There is a repeat on Wednesday, March 5.

The Technology Programme: 2020 Design a Future C4 Monday, February 10, 11.25-11.50am. Rpt February 14 and March 24.

A former steelworks, now the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, is the venue for a competition to produce ideas for improvements in such areas as healthy living, shopping, money, energy and communications. The 20 finalists offer a variety of ingenious designs that range from a virtual clothes shop to a robot bodysearcher which can locate people buried under rubble. Several of the designers found inspiration in that essential accessory of modern life, the mobile phone, while one demonstrated a rather low-tech device for recharging batteries while you jog. This should inspire fresh ideas in 11 to 19 year olds.

Timewatch: 1914 - The War Revolution BBC2 Friday, February 7, 9-9.50pm.

Unimaginative generals - the “donkeys” leading the “lions” of the British Army - are usually blamed for the stagnation of the First World War. In tonight’s Timewatch, Dr Gary Sheffield suggests that technology may have been as much to blame, not only through developments in artillery such as the machine-gun, but also with apparently unmilitary inventions like the telephone and tinned food. Meanwhile, historian Richard van Emden follows the progress of the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards through the war, from start to finish, in the diaries of its soldiers.

Great Books: Wuthering Heights Discovery Civilisation Thursday, February 13, 8am, 6pm, 11pm These surveys of the world’s literature, can provide a useful teaching aid for older pupils, with summaries of the main themes and scholarly analysis.

Emily Bronte’s haunting novel is one of this week’s classics, preceded by Great Expectations (Friday), Gulliver’s Travels (Saturday), Don Quixote (Sunday), Madame Bovary (Monday), The Wizard of Oz (Tuesday) and Plato’s Republic (Wednesday).

For full schedules:www.channel4.co.uklearningmainprogrammesspring2003.cfmwww.bbc.lt;NIPgt; co.ukschoolswhatsontvindex.shtmlwww.discoverychannel.co.uk