BBC Four to find TV's best decade

Humphrey Lyttelton is performing in the BBC's Jazz Britannia series

BBC Four will try to find TV's greatest decade as part of a winter season dedicated to television past and present.

It will include a week-long interactive series called TV on Trial to attempt to pick the best broadcasting era.

BBC Four controller Janice Hadlow said the series would pit some of broadcasting's "grumpy old men" against the "new kids on the TV block".

The aim was to answer the question of whether TV had "dumbed down", she said.

Viewers will be able to tune in to evenings of television dedicated to different decades.

Two presenters - one defending the decade and one criticising it - will commentate on the viewing.

Media Desk

Prominent figures from the world of broadcasting will also be invited to take part in the discussion.

A regular weekly show called The Desk, presented by Tyler Brule, bills itself as the "only media programme on television" and will cast a glance at the week's media agenda, domestic and international.

The writers behind Bremner, Bird and Fortune have also come up with a news-based satire called Don't Watch That Watch This, which offers its own take on reality TV.

Drama and music

Other highlights in the winter schedule include a feature-length drama on controversial drama critic Kenneth Tynan.

Rob Brydon stars as Tynan with Catherine McCormack as his wife Kathleen and Julian Sands as Sir Laurence Olivier.

An eight-part documentary titled Death on the Staircase documents in detail a real murder investigation that took place in North Carolina in 2001.

Musical flavour will come from a season of documentary and film focusing on Jazz Britannia, featuring a weekend of concerts in collaboration with London's Barbican theatre.

The channel will also broadcast from the BBC Symphony Orchestra's composer weekend, which focuses on the work of acclaimed Scottish composer James MacMillan.