Ends 8.15.

Oscar's Orchestra
Thadius wants a birthday bonanza. (R) (S)

7.20 Arthur
Francine tries being nice or a week, then Arthur claims to be a great "gleeper". (R) (S)

7.45 Captain Abercromby
The captain and his crew visit Arthur's ancestral home. (S) (W)

8.00 Pocket Dragon Adventures
Binky grows bigger thanks to a magic potion. (R) (S)

Ends 10.50.
Website: [Web address removed]

Bill and Ben
The flowerpot men try their best to cheer up Weed.
Repeated at 1pm
BBC Bill and Ben Magazine: monthly. £1.35. New issue on sale 18 March

8 25 Poddington Peas
The band play at Poddington Hall, then Zip Pea goes missing.

8.35 Postman Pat
Mail adventures in Greendale.

8.50 Pingu
Animation.

9.00 Teletubbies
The friends enjoy an obstacle course, then Dipsy squashes his hat.
BBC CD-Rom: Play with the Teletubbies, for PC and Playstation, price £19.99

9.50 Playdays
Poppy sets up her own jumble sale.

10.10 Tweenies
The pals try different dances, then can't agree on bugs and insects.
BBC CD-Rom: Ready to Play, for PC and Playstation, price £19.99

Repeats are not indicated.
10.50 Hands Up (ages 9-11) - with sign language.
11.05 Numbertime (ages 4-6)
Shapes - Triangles
11.20 Words and Pictures (ages 5-7) Phonics Special: oa
3605318 11.35 Watch (ages 6-7) Bullying 7128221 11.50 Zig Zag (ages 7-9) Environment -
Water, Air, Land 7105370 12.10 Landmarks (ages 9-12) Children in Victorian Britain

A phonics special where Sophie Aldred looks at words with long vowel sounds. Sophie visits some people who live on a houseboat, and discovers three words with "oa" sound.

Business news, with Adrian Chiles and Adam Shaw.

Ends 1.10.

Bill and Ben
Shown at 8.15am

Drama. A singer gives up her career to marry a fellow singer-songwriter. But, as his career flourishes, she sinks into a pit of jealousy and alcoholism. Review page 58.
Director Stuart Heisler (1947)
(BW)

Colonel Hall tries to cure Bilko of his hopeless gambling addiction. (BW)

(Digital: BBC London News)
Weather

Celebrity chat and debate with Esther Rantzen.

Culinary contest, refereed by Ainsley Harriott.

The quiz with quips, hosted by Anne Robinson.

Bart's Comet. While mapping the stars, Bart discovers a comet on a collision course with Springfield.

Mistaken Identity. Actor and Simpsons voice Hank Azaria guests when Will and Carlton are arrested.

Another chance to see action from the most recent series.
The Ultimate Vengeance. Razer competes in a defining grudge match. Presented by Craig Charles and Julia Reed. With commentary on the action from Jonathan Pearce.
Series producer Bill Hobbins ; Director Stuart MacDonald Repeated 12.20am and on Sunday

Rural life with Clarissa Dickson Wright and Johnny Scott. Fox Hunt. Preparing to set out on a fox hunt, Scott takes his presenting partner to get kitted out. Together, they visit businesses, from tailors to button-makers, who rely on trade from fox hunts to survive. Last in the current series. Director Kate Dillon : Executive producer Patrick Flavelle

The cameras return to roam Woburn Abbey estate in Bedfordshire in a six-part third series set at the home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Tavistock.
As the eldest son gets married at Westminster Abbey, Lord and Lady Tavistock prepare for their 40th-wedding anniversary and the family face the prospect of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Heaps of potential but piles of problems await Rachel de Thame and Joe Swift. Can they transform a garden for a young family? Sarah Raven has tips on sweet peas, while Chris Beardshaw visits Wollerton Old Hall in Shropshire. Alan Titchmarsh continues work on his herbaceous border and vegetables add flavour to Gardeners' Diary.
Series producer Colette Foster ; Executive producer Tony Laryea BBC MAGAZINES: Gardeners' World, price £2.60. Latest issue on sale now Gardens Illustrated, L3.50. Latest issue on sale now BBC BOOK: Grow Your Own Cut Flowers, price £18.99 Your own cut flowers: page 22

Fear, fatigue and cold daily life in a First World War trench is relived in this three-part series. Based on diaries kept by the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire regiment, the series re-creates the experience by placing volunteers in conditions faced in four years of warfare, while veterans recall the Great War. Narrated by Andrew Lincoln.

BBC History Magazine: £2.95. New issue on sale 19 March [web address removed] Return to the Western Front (plus book offer): page 38

[Photo caption] Twenty-four volunteers experience the harsh realities of life in a First World War trench in northern France

The Trench 9.00pm BBC2
Television enjoys re-creating historical eras and, in the main, viewers enjoy watching them -witness the success of Channel 4's 1900 House. The Trench is the latest documentary to put a group of volunteers firmly in the past, with all of the consequent privations and difficulties.
The Trench re-creates, as closely as possible, life in a First World War battlefield trench. The programme uses 24 volunteers from Hull to mirror the day-to-day lives of the men of the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire regiment (otherwise known as the Hull Pals).
The volunteers, after basic training at Catterick, are to spend two weeks in simulated conditions, eating, sleeping and living just like First World War soldiers. Much of the raw material is taken from the regimental war diary of the original battalion. The programme also features poignant testimony from former soldiers - men who are now more than 100 years old but whose memories of those appalling times are still astonishingly vivid. One old soldier recalls the singular horrors of a German gas attack: "It felt as if you'd got a corkscrew turning around in your throat."
The volunteers quickly form close friendships and alliances of a type very similar to those forged on the battlefield. They also face up to the loneliness, unpredictability and boredom of life in a trench.

Return to the Western Front: page 38

Gyles Brandreth guests on a special election edition from the most recent series of the satirical news quiz.
Director Paul Wheeler ; Producer Nick Martin First shown on BBC1

Presented by Jeremy Vine.

Germaine Greer , Joe Queenan and Alkarim Jivani join Mark Lawson for a review of cultural highlights and low points.
Producer Mark Bell Repeated next Sunday on BBC4

(Shown Thursday 6.45pm)
(S) (W)

Shown at 6.45pm

A semi-autobiographical portrait of life in seventies Brooklyn by director Spike Lee , starring Alfre Woodard and Delroy Undo. A young musician and his wife struggle to bring up their five children amid tension and financial problems. Widescreen. Review page 61.
(1994. 12)

Repeats are not indicated.
National Test Revision Revisewise at School Science 2