Martin Luther King and the March on Washington, BBC Two/MLK: The Assassination Tapes, BBC Four

Fifty years after his most famous speech, two very different documentaries consider Dr King's legacy

It was only today I learned that, for copyright reasons, it is impossible to use Martin Luther King’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech in its entirety without paying a hefty licensing fee to his estate. That knowledge made it easier to understand why a new documentary to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington seemed to gloss over its figurehead’s famous words.

The Great British Bake Off 2013, BBC Two

THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF 2013, BBC TWO Competitive cake show returns with a 'baker's dozen' of fresh contenders

Competitive cake show returns with a 'baker's dozen' of fresh contenders

Amongst my friends, I am known as an admirer of the baked good in just about all of its forms: the loaf, the sponge, the ubiquitous cupcake. And yet something about The Great British Bake Off has always put me off. The relentless commercialisation of certain stereotypes of post-war frugality, typically practised by female heads of house, over the past few years has left a progressively nastier taste in my mouth as national austerity has hit harder.

Top of the Lake, Series Finale, BBC Two

TOP OF THE LAKE, SERIES FINALE, BBC TWO New Zealand-set small-town psychodrama concludes with more than one nasty surprise

New Zealand-set small-town psychodrama concludes with more than one nasty surprise

“Everything you think you are, you’re not,” pronounced Holly Hunter’s inscrutable GJ in the final episode of the chilly Top of the Lake. Certainties crumbled as the series progressed, with Elisabeth Moss’s Robin Griffin discovering that almost everyone in the remote New Zealand town of Laketop had something they would prefer to hide. Returning there to see her terminally ill mother, Griffin also found that what she had escaped was becoming far too close, threatening who she thought she was - and who she actually may be.

Dragons' Den, Series 11, BBC Two

DRAGONS' DEN, SERIES 11, BBC TWO Two new dragons hope to win 100 per cent of our investment

Two new dragons hope to win 100 per cent of our investment

Two new dragons have joined the Dragons’ Den, and it may be even scarier for them than it is for the entrepreneurs. How can pale, uppercrust, celebrity hotel designer Kelly Hoppen possibly match up to our ‘ilary, the trucking queen with the Buzz Lightyear shoulder-pads and the bass-baritone snarl? And how can a faceless cloud-computing bloke supplant Theo, the affable little emperor of high-street bras and waspies? Will we the viewers invest 60 minutes of our precious time in 100 percent of their business?

Horizon: What Makes Us Human?, BBC Two

Pregnant professor puts two per cent of clear blue water between her baby and other apes

Teamwork, as the song once said, makes the dream work. Homo sapiens knows this, if not quite by nature, then at least by nurture. Turns out that there are some chimpanzees in Leipzig which are all over the team thing too. Offered the chance to pull together on a simple mechanism to retrieve a nut – one each – two chimps will work in tandem to make it happen.

Who Were the Greeks?, BBC Two/Eye Spy, Channel 4

Delightful new series on ancient Greece. Dreadful new series on modern Britons

When television goes off exploring classical civilisation, you can hear those lines from The Life of Brian chiming in your head. “Apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?” Such has been the glut of Roman TV in recent times that no couch potato is in any further doubt. The Romans have kept the plebs royally entertained. But what of the Greeks?

The Secret Life of the Cat, BBC Two

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE CAT A television treat to watch a village's felines walking on the (not very) wild side

A television treat to watch a village's felines walking on the (not very) wild side

It’s been quite a week for surveillance. And no, that doesn’t mean the NSA and whatever’s happening in Hong Kong. You can bet the week's viewing figures that the majority of Britain’s households, particularly those in the triple-F category – meaning, feline-focused families – will have been more preoccupied with Horizon’s investigation into what exactly goes on when that flap goes up, The Secret Life of the Cat.

The Fall, Series Finale, BBC Two

THE FALL, SERIES FINALE, BBC TWO Exploitation pays as Belfast thriller draws to a temporary conclusion

Exploitation pays as Belfast thriller draws to a temporary conclusion

In the end, it was always going to come down to the last episode whether The Fall was powerful female-driven drama or, to quote another writer for theartsdesk, “misogynistic torture porn”. That conclusion, however, was as elusive as the ending of Allan Cubitt’s thriller; cunningly set up as if to strongarm BBC Two into a second series before the announcement was made.

The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood, BBC Two

Historian and author AN Wilson’s one-sided trawl through the life of the innovative 18th-century potter

As a self-taught chemist, innovative industrialist, a businessman who exploited and developed new means of distribution and marketing, an anti-slavery campaigner and a man dealing with his own disability, the Staffordshire potter Josiah Wedgwood was an important 18th-century figure, a pioneer whose achievements still resonate. But a genius?

Queen Victoria's Children, BBC Two

QUEEN VICTORIA'S CHILDREN, BBC TWO Historical documentary offers a reminder of how not to bring up an heir to the throne

Historical documentary offers a reminder of how not to bring up an heir to the throne

They muck one up, one’s ma and pa. Later this year, all being tickety-boo, a royal uterus will be delivered of the third in line to the throne. The media in all its considerable fatuity will ponder the best way to bring up such an infant in the era of, for instance, Twitter. Full marks go to the BBC’s history department for mischievously lobbing this cautionary little gem into the pot. Queen Victoria’s Children is a three-part manual in how not to raise a future monarch.