The first in a three-part dramatised documentary bringing to life the story of Charles Dickens, Peter Ackroyd shows how the writer's early years shaped his life and work. Starring Anton Lesser, Timothy West, Prunella Scales and Miriam Margolyes.

With George Alagiah.

The Guardian columnist chairs the discussion.

After an isolated childhood in a mainly white community, Nitin Sawhney is now one of Britain's most highly regarded black musicians. Starting a five-part series of profiles, this portrait - centring on Sawhney's December 2001 show at London's Royal Albert Hall - chronicles his life from the early years in Kent to his involvement in the hit TV series Goodness Gracious Me.

François Truffaut's largely autobiographical debut feature from 1959, an evocation of a boy's troubled adolescence in Paris, which became one of the key films of the nascent French New Wave movement. Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud. In French with English subtitles.
Review page 59.

David Aaronovitch looks at the motivations behind the notorious French farmer's campaign against the prevailing world order.