What kind of programmes will the new BBC4 show

A.� The new channel, which has a �35 million budget, has been dubbed 'Radio 4 with pictures' by television critics. It will replace BBC Knowledge and will be broadcast each night from 7pm to 1am, starting on March 2.

The BBC says the new channel will feature documentaries with serious historical and political themes, along with a range of drama and arts premieres.

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Q.� So it's a digital channel

A.� The BBC says that unlike subscription arts channels such as Artworld, Performance and Digital Classics TV, all BBC4 programmes will be free to air for viewers with a digital box.

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Q.� What programmes have been lined up so far

A.� The Beeb is heralding the arrival of Surrealissimo, the dramatisation of the infamous trial of Salvador Dali by Andre Breton and other surrealists in 1934. There's a high profile line-up, including Stephen fry, Ewen Bremner and Vic Reeves.

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�It will also screen Hamlet, starring Adrian Lester in Peter Brook's acclaimed production of the Shakeseapre tragedy.

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The Falklands Play is a three-hour drama about the 1982 war, shown to mark the 20th anniversary of the conflict. The drama was commissioned in 1986, then dropped after attacks on the BBC by Mrs Thatcher's cabinet.

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There will be the chance to see Bjork performing at the Royal Opera House, The Mystery of Charles Dickens, a one-man stage play about the novelist, and a programme called The Gist, a spoof arts magazine from John Morton, the creator of People Like Us.�

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The Barbican arts centre recently announced its own plasn to broadcast live performances on BBC4.

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Q.� What will happen to BBC2 if all the good arts programmes are disappearing to BBC4

A.� The controller�of BBC2, Jane Root, has said: "BBC2 is going to be like an upmarket broadsheet, while BBC4 will eventually become the channel for more minority interest programming." But arts fans without digital boxes will be closely monitoring the content on BBC2 over the next few months.�

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There has been much speculation about the decline of BBC arts programming over recent months. The broadcaster Jon Snow cited the BBC2's decision to drop its coverage of the Whitbread Prize for books as a further symptom of the trend.

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By Katharine MacColl