"Untold Stories" is Alan Bennett's first collection of prose since "Writing Home" and takes in all his major writings over the last ten years.

This is a travel book, an account of the year Tobias Jones spent living in communes and amongst unusual dreamers. It is his attempt to retreat from the 'real world' - which is making him emptier and angrier by the day - and seek out the alternatives to modern manners and morality.

Londoner Brockes, a 29-year-old playwright who writes for the Guardian, expounds on her love of musicals.

An inspirational memoir about taming wild horses and fulfilling impossible dreams.

From the walnut tree at his Suffolk home, Roger Deakin embarks upon a quest that takes him through Britain, across Europe, to Central Asia and Australia, in search of what lies behind man's profound and enduring connection with wood and with trees. Meeting woodlanders of all kinds, he lives in shacks and cabins, builds hazel benders, and hunts bush-plums with aboriginal women. At once autobiography, history, a traveller's tale and a work of natural history, "Wildwood" is a lyrical and fiercely intimate evocation of the spirit of trees: in nature, in our souls, in our culture, and in our lives.

The life of Willie Donaldson ended in June 2005 when he was found dead in the seedy rented flat in Chelsea where he had lived for 35 years. Willie Donaldson's extraordinary, perverse career of writing, drug-taking, brilliance and underachievement put him in the same holy bracket as Peter Cook, Jeffrey Bernard, Peter Sellers, Hunter Thompson and Alan Clark, although his talent for sabotaging his own achievements has meant that his legend has up until now remained a secret to the few. Friend and collaborator, Terence Blacker's intimate biography will finally turn him into the iconic anti-hero of British non-conformism that he truly was, telling Willie's strange story in all its glamour, hilarity and pain.

Early research in the 1990s suggested that babies born with a lower birth weight were at increased risk of developing diabetes in later life. This work has now moved on to show that the weight you put on after birth is more crucial. How effective is physical exercise on the rate of developing diabetes, and just how much exercise do you need to do in order to protect yourself? Richard Hannaford follows the population studies that have found the answers to these and other questions about the emergence of this condition.

Adding fluoride to the water supply has always been a polarised debate. Some think it will prevent tooth decay while others say its safety has not been proven. Its not a new argument, 50 years of fluoridation studies are available but recently public health officials of both Scotland and England have revisited the issue. The difference is that Scotland has decided against increasing the amount of fluoride in the water, while in England the Strategic Health Authorities can, after consultation, request that Water Companies add fluoride to an agreed level. Richard Hannaford asks whether science can ever solve this controversy.

One person in a hundred suffers from schizophrenia and among some groups, especially migrants; the incidence appears to be even higher. Schizophrenia still carries a stigma and many sufferers refuse to accept that they have the condition.Schizophrenia may include a range of symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. But doctors are still at a loss to explain what actually causes the disease.

We make, we create, we paint, we write, we think we discover and we invent. Humans are endlessly creative. From our ability to utter completely new sentences every time we speak to the artistic and scientific genius of Picasso, Shakespeare or Einstein. Do scientists or psychologists know very much about what creativity actually is, or which bit of our brain is in control when we do? Ian Peacock unravels the myth, science and psychology behind creativity. He also finds out why computers could be the artists and writers of the 22nd century.

Creativity unlocked. In the second programme Ian talks to the scientist who's invented a magnetic thinking cap which could make creative geniuses of us all and meets the man who after a stroke, can't stop his craving to paint, sculpt and write poetry. On his search for Xanadu he finds out why creativity is unleashed in some kinds of brain damage and how neuroscience is shedding light on the mystery of creativity,

How can you be more creative? In the third programme Ian finds out what strategies and techniques he can borrow from business and beyond to maximise his own creativity. He talks an advertising agency to find out how they think up their best ideas, and finds out why businesses are using poets and artists to improve their productivity.

Lars Tharp explores the Chinese porcelain industry. He travels to Jingdezhen, west of Shanghai, the most important city in the maufacture of pocelain for 1,000 years and follows the trail linking Jingdezhen to Britain.

Lars Tharp explores the Chinese porcelain industry. He travels to Jingdezhen, west of Shanghai, the most important city in the maufacture of pocelain for 1,000 years and follows the trail linking Jingdezhen to Britain.

Programme 1: Water - a unique molecule. Our planet is dominated by water: it covers nearly three quarters of the Earth’s surface, is fundamental to plate tectonics, carves the landscape through erosion and is necessary for all life on Earth – and therefore all life as we know it.

Programme 2: Water elsewhere. NASA’s mission statement is to “follow the water”. The recent dramatic results from the small armada of probes on Mars suggest this approach is now paying off. It appears the planet was bathed in a watery past. But the surface is now dry and barren. Scientists are now using experiments on board both European and American probes to work out where all of the planet’s water has gone.

Writer and poet Ruth Padel investigates the qualities of her great great grandfather Charles Darwin and attempts to discover the man behind the science.

Ruth Padel explores how Darwin established relationships as a husband and father.

Ruth Padel explores the way in which Darwin learned to become a writer.

Ruth explores the losses which Darwin experienced in his life and their effect on him.

Edward Stourton tries to make sense of a decade in which history has been put on fast forward. There has been a revolution in the way we communicate, widespread alarm about the planet's very survival and a challenge to the world order. What does it mean for the way we live as we head into 2010? The impact of the internet - dreamt up by visionaries, embraced by commerce and full of (not always welcome) surprises.

1905 is the year that shook the world of science, and sent Newton, unchallenged for well over 200 years, tumbling from his throne. In Einstein's Shadow takes a look at the huge impact of Einstein's theories and talks to the scientists, who one hundred years later are still heavily influenced by his work.

General Relativity and Einstein's "biggest blunder". All cosmology today is essentially based on Einstein's theory of general relativity and so far, every prediction he made about the universe has turned out to be true. Even his so called "biggest blunder" may well solve the greatest riddle in cosmology today, the nature of dark energy - the mysterious force that makes up nearly 80% of the universe.

Quantum Theory and why God does play dice It's not just cosmologists who claim to be working in his shadow. Particle Physicists trying to discover how the very first atoms formed at the beginning of the universe, through to quantum theorists and those working on a unified theory of everything all site Einstein as a major influence. And his theories remain unchallenged to this day.

Adam Hart-Davis dons his hard hat and waders as he wanders through Belfast's sewer network to see how today's engineers are modernising the Victorian sewerage network with robots and ultra violet light.

The evil supremo meets Dr Faustus. Martin Jenkin's fable adaptation of a man selling his soul to the Devil. Stars Mark Gatiss.

Faust wants sex. Mephistopheles wants his signature. Fable adaptation of a man selling his soul to the Devil. Stars Mark Gatiss.

Faust gets a girl, Mephistopheles closes in and Gretchen's ruination is charted. Adapted Devil-dealing fable with Mark Gatiss.

Gretchen is pregnant with Faust's child, but the worst is yet to come. Adapted Devil-dealing fable starring Mark Gatiss.

Faust becomes bored by years of wish fulfilment. Fable adaptation of a man selling his soul to the Devil. Stars Mark Gatiss.