This weeks pick is the exploration by Richard Dawkins of the consequences for human society both in theory and as actualised by often unscrupulous others of his pivotal finding of the existence of the process of natural selection.
Other highlights include explorations of the regimes of Sudan in the 1980's and Uganda in the 1970's and policing methods from this latter decade also.
Sunday 10 August - 7 - 8pm - Channel 4 - Make Me A Christian - 1/3
The Rev. George Hargreaves, operating in the Leeds area, attempts to convert a range of volunteers to Christianity, ranging from the open-minded to the openly hostile. His would-be converts include an atheist, a middle-class family and a Muslim schoolteacher.
Sunday 10 August - 10.30pm - 12am - BBC2 - The John Akii-Bua Story: an African Tragedy
At the infamous Munich Olympics of 1972, Ugandan John Akii-Bua won a gold medal in the 400m hurdles, setting a new world record. Despite this towering achievement, however, he was destined to return home to tragedy, blighted as his country was by the murderous corruption of Idi Amin's regime. Members of his tribe were among those specifically earmarked for persecution and annihilation and he was forced to flee to Kenya in 1979.
Pick of the Week :rb:
Monday 11 August - 8 - 9pm - Channel 4 - The Genius of Charles Darwin - 2/3
In this weeks pivotal documentary, Dawkins explores some of the consequences for human society that have sprung from Darwin's concept of natural selection. Some of his ideas have been perverted in ways that the man himself would no doubt have been horrified by, such as the promulgation of theories of eugenics. Other aspects of the programme deal with the threat to the then established Victorian Christian order in society in which human beings were considered to be a creature apart from and superior to all others and not related in any way to members of the animal kingdom.
Monday 11 August - 9 - 10pm - BBC4 - The Real Life On Mars
Beginning BBC4's "Britcop" strand, this light-hearted documentary reveals the truth about policing in Britain in the 1970's featuring interviews with career criminals and police chiefs in order to see if there was any substance to the portrayal by Philip Glennister of DCI Gene Hunt in popular recent retro cop drama "Life on Mars".
Tuesday 12 August - 10 - 11.40pm - More4 - True Stories: the Lost Boys
This documentary in the consistently high-quality "True Stories" strand chronicles the lives of a group of youngsters who fled Sudan in 1987 and escaped to a Kenyan refugee camp.
Wednesday 13 August - 9 - 10pm - BBC2 - House of Saddam - 3/4
By May 1995, Saddam is being threatened by weapons inspectors probing Iraq, and the biting effect of economic sanctions applied by other countries. His eldest son, Uday, is descending further into madness and Hussein distracts himself by copying out the Koran in his own blood, before wreaking further terrible revenge on those he considers have betrayed him.
Friday 15 August - 10 - 11.55pm - More4 - The Road to Guantanamo
This documentary tells the story of three young men from the Midlands who were imprisoned as suspected members of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell. Wishing only to attend the wedding of one of their number in Pakistan and to purely pay a visit to Afghanistan, they were nonetheless held without charge for over two years and forced to endure long bouts of torture and interrogation. Michael Winterbottom is understandably searing in his critique.
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