Extreme Archaeology (Sunday Ch4); Strictly Come Dancing (Saturday BBC1); The Rough Guide to Choreography (Saturday Ch4): FORGET Tony Robinson and that bearded fellow from Time Team, this is archaeology with attractive women and a sense of adventure.

Katie Hirst, Alice Roberts and Meg Watters have set themselves up as real life Lara Crofts. Each week, we will see them facing a new challenge handed out by hunky expedition leader Mark Davies - just so the female viewers don't feel left out.

The challenges obviously involve setting up unusual digs but the emphasis is less on what is found and more how the leggy lovelies try to find it.

In the first show of the series, we saw them suspended by wires over the treacherous mud of the River Wye at Chepstow. The remains of a Roman bridge at the river are only accessible for a few moments at low tides, so the girls had to dangle like spiderwomen waiting for the right second to start their work.

It was all very exciting and an innovative way to try to make history a bit more interesting but the show's motives seem a bit questionable. Although I have no doubt that all three of the show's stars are experts in their fields and know exactly what they are doing, you can't help wondering whether this show is aiming to attract more people to archaeology or just more hot-blooded men to Channel Four.

Talking of hot-blooded males, Strictly Come Dancing has achieved the impossible and made ballroom dancing sexy. On Saturday, we saw the latest round of the dancing championships, with the celebrities having to complete two routines.

But it's not the sequins and skimpy costumes that are making this show a must watch but what is happening behind the scenes. Rugby player Martin Offiah has been seen kissing his dance partner and there are rumours that other famous names also are getting a bit too close to their partners.

Forget voting for the best foxtrot - it's much more interesting trying to guess which contestants are hot footing it into bed with each other.

A different passion for dance was investigated in The Rough Guide to Choreography.

The cameras are following former Royal Ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn as they set out to choreograph their first ever piece of dance.

Cutting through the usual pretension associated with ballet, in this first show William and Michael ran around like frightened rabbits trying to get as much advice from as many people as possible about their challenge.

This programme obviously hopes to do for ballet what Pop Idol did for the music industry, by showing us the nuts and bolts of what goes into a piece of modern dance.

But sadly, it lacked the pace of Pop Idol and by the end I was screaming at the TV for them to stop talking, strap on their ballet shoes and just start dancing.

Published: 21/06/2004