'The Saturday Play - His Dark Materials: Northern Lights'
(BBC Radio 4, 1.30 to 5pm)
A three-part adapation of Philip Pullman's popular trilogy, 'His Dark Materials'. The first book, The Northern Lights, introduces listeners to 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, who lives in Oxford in a universe parallel to the one we know, where souls exist on the outside of the body. She soon discovers there are dark forces at work involving the disappearance of children.
5 January.
'The Food Programme'
(BBC Radio 4, 12.30 to 1pm)
In the wake of festive excess, Sheila Dillon investigates the idea of 'everything in moderation' and asks if this is the most sensible way to approach the matter of what people eat and drink.
'Songs of Praise - Baptism'
(BBC 1, 5.30 to 6.15pm) In the first of three programmes on rites of passage, Aled Jones looks at the different traditions of baptism and offers a personal perspective at the christening of his own daughter.
6 January.
'A is for Absent'
(BBC Radio 4, 11 to 11.30am)
This programme looks at the impact of illness during childhood and how it affects the sufferers for the rest of their lives. Among those featured are Jodie, who was born with a rare condition called fibula hemimelia which has meant more than 70 absences from school, and Doris, who spent a year in bed with rheumatic fever in the 1940s.
'Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends'
(ITV 1, 3.15 to 3.20pm each weekday)
A new series of adventures for pre-school children with the popular train and his rolling-stock colleagues.
'Beyond Belief'
(BBC Radio 4, 4.30 to 5pm)
This first programme in a new series marks the festival of the Epiphany with a discussion between Christians and Muslims on the role of religious beliefs in the 21st century.
'Fat Plague'
(Channel 4, 9 to 10pm)
Dr Nikhil Dhurandhar believes a virus could be infecting more than 30 per cent of Americans and making them obese. Despite the impressive amount of data he has acquired over the past four years, the scientific community is deeply sceptical of his theory.
7 January.
'Wife Swap'
(Channel 4, 9 to 10pm)
In this new four-part series, wives from eight very different families agree to swap husbands, children, the family home and lifestyles.
8 January 'X-periMENTAL'
(BBC 1, 4.20 to 4.35pm)
A new children's science games show in which pupils from two schools compete to see how much 20 children will drink out of a glass of squash in 30 seconds and how many rugby players it takes to sink a small boat.
'Diet Another Day'
(Channel 4, 8.30 to 9pm)
Journalist and actress Maria McErlane goes in search of inner cleanliness when she says goodbye to alcohol, coffee, tea, wheat and dairy produce for a month. A detox plan is devised and tri-weekly electronic massage sessions promise to break down the fat cells to lose a minimum of ten pounds in weight by the end of the month.
