Dec 27th-Jan 1st

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2011 - Meet Your Brain 
BBC4 8:00pm-9:00pm (1 hour ) Tue 27 Dec
What's in Your Head? New series. Professor Bruce Hood, an experimental psychologist, presents three lectures exploring the operation of the human brain. He begins with an analysis of how it constructs a representation of the outside world from the nerve impulses it receives - which prove to be few in number, requiring it to fill in a great deal of information. The scientist uses audience members to simulate the functions of a brain, and explains what brainwaves look like and the speed of neurons

The Toys That Made Christmas 
BBC2 London 11:30pm-1:00am (1 hour 30 minutes) Tue 27 Dec
Robert Webb takes a light-hearted look back at playthings of the past, offering fortysomethings the chance to reminisce about the days before PlayStations, laptops and iPods. It was a more innocent time when Fuzzy-Felt and Spirograph brought out the artist in everyone, girls spent hours with Barbie and boys were engrossed in trying to bolt together their impossibly fiddly Meccano models - to name just four of the toys mentioned

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2011 - Meet Your Brain 
BBC4 8:00pm-9:00pm (1 hour ) Wed 28 Dec
Who's in Charge Here Anyway? Professor Bruce Hood explores how the brain performs tasks without conscious awareness. He explains how it uses short cuts to process the vast amount of information it receives, deciding what it should attend to and what to ignore. He also describes why multi-tasking can be dangerous, before using illusions and audience participation in a bid to make people say the wrong thing and fail to see what is in front of them


Ben Elton: Laughing at the 80s 
Channel 4 11:40pm-1:35am (1 hour 55 minutes) Wed 28 Dec
The co-writer of series The Young Ones and Blackadder sets off on a personal journey to tell the tale of a decade that heralded the birth of alternative comedy - a new style that highlighted the social changes taking place in Britain at the time. Ben meets Rik Mayall, Lenny Henry, Harry Enfield, Victoria Wood and Jimmy Tarbuck among others to reminisce about some of the greatest moments of recent comedy history. Also featuring contributions by Clive Anderson, Stephen Fry, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Adrian Edmondson, Jo Brand and Nigel Planer

Have I Got 2010 for You 
BBC2 London 11:00pm-11:30pm (30 minutes) Thu 29 Dec
Compilation of highlights from 2010 of the satirical current affairs quiz, hosted by Alexander Armstrong with team captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures 2011 - Meet Your Brain 
BBC4 8:00pm-9:00pm (1 hour ) Thu 29 Dec
Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking? Professor Bruce Hood explores why human brains give personalities to anything perceived to have character, as when drivers give their cars names. He asks if it is possible for a robot to fall in love and questions whether eyes can be regarded as windows to the soul. He also uses live demonstrations to explain why an individual feels pain when they see someone else get hurt, and what attracts someone to another person. Last in the series

Comic Strip Presents - The Hunt for Tony Blair 
Channel 4 11:10pm-12:15am (1 hour 5 minutes) Thu 29 Dec
Prime Minister Tony Blair is suspected of murder, so one foggy night he escapes from Number 10 and sets out to clear his name. But with no one willing to harbour a wanted man and the newspapers demanding his capture, he is forced to go on the run, hotly pursued by the cops. Spoof 1950s-style noir thriller, starring Stephen Mangan as the fugitive PM, with old Comic Strip faces Nigel Planer, Jennifer Saunders, Rik Mayall and Robbie Coltrane joined by Harry Enfield, John Sessions, James Buckley, Ross Noble

Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe 
BBC4 10:30pm-11:30pm (1 hour ) Fri 30 DecThe writer and broadcaster takes a satirical look back at the events of the past 12 months, a year that included weddings both royal and gypsy, as well as riots across England and Wales, the phone-hacking scandal and the TV debut of Desperate Scousewives. With contributions by American stand-up Doug Stanhope, Brian Limond, the star of BBC Scotland comedy Limmy's Show!, and documentary-maker Adam Curtis