National Science Week: The BBC is leading the way among broadcasters in supporting this week of science-related activities. On Radio 4 FM, Saturday, March 18, 4.30pm, Science Now has a live special edition from Jodrell Bank. On Sunday, March 19, 7.35pm, Radio 5 Live pitches in with The Acid Test with reports on the European Laboratory for Particle Physics and the latest in Aids research. Monday, BBC1, March 20, 9.30pm, Panorama marks the week with “Pulp Future”, looking at how science fiction could become science fact.
Blue Peter, BBC1, Monday, March 20, 5.05pm, visits the British astronomical telescopes on the Canary Islands. On Radio 2, Tuesday, March 21, 9.00pm, Devices and Desires looks at how computer technology might change lives in the future. For a grand finale to the week, Tomorrow’s World, BBC1, Friday, March 24, 7.30pm, is planning experiments to turn the British Isles into “the biggest laboratory in the world”.
* Whose News?: The Daily Planet. Channel 4, Sunday, March 19, 8.00pm. A season of programmes addresses the practice and politics of newsgathering, beginning with this global round-up of news techniques. How local news is reported is the subject of Deadline, Monday, March 20, 9.00pm; news management by politicians is examined in Dispatches, Wednesday, March 22, 9.00pm and the rise and rise of multinational news organisations is explored in Naked News, Thursday, March 23, 9.00pm.
* The Knowledge: 2020 Vision. BBC2, Tuesday, March 21, 7.30pm. Sir Geoffrey Holland, former permanent secretary at the Department for Education, explains why he believes the education system is failing so many young people. He accuses the present system of serving an elite at the expense of the majority and calls for a reclaiming of lifelong education for all. He illustrates his arguments for what he would prefer to see in the nation’s classrooms with visits to primary and secondary schools in London, a careers evening in Crewe, a Merseyside further education college and the University of Oxford.
* Uncle Ho and Uncle Sam. BBC2, Thursday, March 23, 9.30pm. It’s 20 years since United States troops were lifted from Saigon, and this documentary shows how an earlier American intervention in Vietnam influenced the success of the Communists. In 1945, the United States sent arms, military advisers and trainers to Ho Chi Minh’s guerillas in northern Vietnam, to help them fight the common enemy, the Japanese. The documentary records how American guns and money built up the fledgling force, and how Ho Chi Minh used the words of the American Declaration of Independence to proclaim the independence of North Vietnam in 1945. But this friendship ended as Ho Chi Minh’s appeals for aid from President Truman were answered by the United States giving support to the colonial French.
* The Home Front. Radio 4 FM, Friday, March 24, 10.02am. Using material from the “Mass Observation” project, in which thousands of ordinary lives were carefully recorded in the Thirties and Forties, this new series looks at British social history during wartime. The programme, which promises “an unparalleled insight into life in wartime” also uses BBC broadcasts of the period, music and newspaper reports. The seven-part series begins with “These Foolish Things”, a portrait of Britain in the months leading up to war.
