Lots on Thursday, for some reason. But of course you will all be at the CYP Now Awards like me so you'll have to set your video recorder, if you still have such a retro machine. I do.
Monday 23 November
Channel 4 8pm Dispatches: Return to Africa's Witch Children In 2008 Dispatches told the story of how children in Africa's Niger Delta were being denounced by Christian pastors as witches and wizards and then killed, tortured or abandoned by their own families. Child rights legislation came into force making it illegal to brand children as witches and some pastors were arrested. Financial support also poured in to assist a small British charity (Stepping Stones Nigeria) providing the only safe refuge for hundreds of youngsters attacked after claims that they were possessed by the Devil. In Return to Africa's Witch Children, Dispatches reveals what happened to some of the children and church leaders who originally featured, and discovers that even now children as young as two are still being stigmatised as witches and treated as outcasts.
BBC3 10.30pm Young Mechanic of the Year Repeated ad infinitumn throughout the week, including 9pm on Tuesday. We've already seen Young Butcher of the Year, this is the second in the BBC's series celebrating inspiring young professionals. Hairdressing and cooking to come. Cooking's a bit of a cop-out, what with MasterChef already there, don't you think? I'd love to see childcare, but I don't know how they could test that in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.
Tuesday 24 November
BBC4 9pm Storyville: The Horse Boy A documentary which chronicles Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff's personal odyssey to make sense of their child's autism, and find healing for him and themselves in the unlikeliest of places.
Wednesday 25 November
Nothing relevant as far as I can see. Do as I do and catch up with Baltimore education and drugs policy on The Wire DVDs instead. Or, you know, read a book.
Thursday 26 November
More4 8.30pm The Boy Who Was Born A Girl Follows Jon, a 16-year-old boy who was born a girl, through three months of life-changing treatment as testosterone pushes his female body into male puberty.
Channel 4 9pm Jess: Britain's Youngest Sleep Walker One in five parents believe that their children are not getting as much sleep as they should. This Cutting Edge film reveals what life is like for a little girl whose insomnia has become more than just a childhood habit. Three-and-a-half-year-old Jess has a condition that has baffled every doctor she has seen so far. Jess is monitored at home and then observed at the clinic to first ascertain if she is sleepwalking or awake, or if her condition is even rarer still. But can even Britain's top paediatric sleep doctors unravel the mystery of Jess's night-life?
BBC3 9.30pm Megan: Let Me Grow Up Megan is home-schooled by her strict Jehovah's witness mum and dad and
leads a life structured around rules and routines. We enter her life
where she has to spend time with the family rather than others of her
own age. Megan is ready for a change and her parents realise their
first-born needs to be 'socialised', but where and how they do they do
this?
Five 10.55pm America's Toughest Prisons: Kids Behind Bars. This instalment examines a radical new approach to dealing with juvenile crime in Pueblo, Colorado. The Youthful Offender System, or YOS, is a special institution designed to rehabilitate young felons who would otherwise be sent to adult prisons. Through a stringent programme of military exercises, hard work and schooling, YOS offers the young people a final chance at life on the outside.
Friday 27 November
Nothing today. Perhaps you could have a social life. Not me though, with MediaChild in bed, it's back to the corner kids on The Wire. Only a season and a half to go.
