What's On the Box this week?

'Spanish 'Flu: The Forgotten Fallen' (BBC 4, Wednesday) - Bill Paterson, Mark Gatis, Charlotte Riley and Kenneth Cranham star a new drama illuminating one doctor's pioneering efforts to protect the people of Manchester from the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic. Set against the background of the Armistice in November 1918, as millions of exhausted soldiers returned home from the Great War, the film tells the little-known story of Dr James Niven, Manchester's medical officer of health for 30 years, and his heroic efforts to combat a second wave of fatal influenza as it spread across the city of Manchester and the UK. Niven built his career protecting the welfare of Manchester's most vulnerable people, from the factory workers to the slum-dwellers. Inspired by Niven's own accounts and documented facts, the film pays a rare tribute to the estimated 70 million forgotten fallen who died from Spanish influenza across the world, and continues to resonate today, with many of his conclusions, instructions and discoveries echoed by modern advice and procedures for pandemic 'flu. ____________________________________________________________ 'Real Crime' (ITV, Thursday) - For six months, the largest supermarket in Britain and its customers were the targets of a letter bomb campaign, which prompted the biggest, most secretive investigation Dorset police had ever mounted as officers tried to catch the bomber trying to extort millions of pounds from Tesco. In this programme, the police officers who worked on the case explain the difficulties they faced in tracking down the bomber and the tactics used to prevent him in carrying out his threats. In September 2000, John Purnell, then director of security at Tesco, received a phone call from a Bournemouth newsagent who had discovered a photocopy of a threatening letter addressed to Tesco on the shop's photocopier. Signed Sally, the letter demanded the company pay the author using Tesco loyalty cards he wanted the supermarket to give away in every copy of local paper, the Daily Echo, which had a circulation of roughly 50,000, to avoid a letter bomb campaign. ____________________________________________________________ 'The Russians Are Coming' (CH4, Friday) - Sally Ashby's intriguing film lifts the lid on the exclusive world of super-rich Russians who want an English public school education for their children. Dina Karpova, a glamorous international property broker who is capitalising on Russia's love for all things English, has sent her own son to school in the UK and is now fast-tracking her clients' children into Britain's high society by introducing them to aristocratic families and getting them into the most prestigious public schools. There are several consultants who specialise in getting foreign children into British public schools but Karpova is unique, working with educational consultant Charles Bonas, who says that "traditionally, the great schools have educated a lot of the ruling families, so that culture is there. The Russians are doing everything to replicate the Tsarist lifestyle and part of that is being educated in the West". Dina Karpova epitomises the aspirational and determined Russians that are embracing the capitalist ethos of the West. ____________________________________________________________ 'The Football League Show' (BBC 1, Saturday) - The Football League takes centre stage in this new Saturday night highlights show, featuring all the opening day's drama and all the goals from every division. There's extended action from today's big games as well as special features, and a chance for viewers to comment on the day's stories. Newcastle start life in the Championship in a match which, just six months ago, was a Premier League clash, as West Bromwich Albion welcome their fellow fallen heroes. Ian Holloway returns to QPR with his Blackpool team, while Cardiff City open their new stadium that sits in the shadow of Ninian Park. Nigel Clough, meanwhile, leads Derby against Darren Ferguson's Peterborough, who ended last season as the form team in League One. Southampton start life in that league on minus 10 points and meet losing play-off finalists Millwall. Burton are the new boys in the league and they travel to Shrewsbury. ____________________________________________________________ Movie Of The Week: 'Old School' (BBC 1, Friday) - Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn are disillusioned with their personal lives and decide to form their own fraternity on a college campus to re-live their student glory days by bringing together a variety of misfit college kids, losers, middle-aged and elderly retirees as their new friends. Predictable, but very funny all the way.