Veteran polymath Jonathan Miller will be joined by fellow intellectuals, including playwright Arthur Miller and "Selfish Gene" scientist Richard Dawkins for a series about atheism, as part of highbrow digital channel BBC4's autumn schedule.
Miller, a professed non-believer who has presented many TV programmes in the past as well as directing plays and operas, will be presenting a "personal and provocative" exploration of the subject, entitled Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief.
Novelist Gore Vidal and philosopher Daniel Dennett will also be contributing to the programme.
The series is one of a number of documentaries that make up the schedule for BBC4's third autumn since it was set up under Roly Keating, who has since taken up the reins at BBC2.
His successor, Janice Hadlow, unveiling her first autumn line-up, said the season would see "challenging, enquiring and entertaining programmes rich in range and texture" and paid tribute to Mr Keating's legacy.
"Since its launch in March 2002, BBC4 has established a reputation as the home of enquiring and stimulating programming - documentaries, drama, talk and analysis which all offer in-depth analysis and exploration."
When she was appointed in June, Ms Hadlow promised to bring more "big, ambitious, authoritative" factual shows to the digital channel, which is best known for its dramatisation of the Alan Clark Diaries and documentary series The National Trust.
In previous jobs at the BBC and Channel 4, Ms Hadlow was responsible for turning historians Simon Schama and David Starkey into TV stars, and she will be hoping to have the same effect with other university figures who have been recruited to front BBC4 programmes this autumn.
Cambridge science professor Simon Schaffer is presenting Light Fantastic, a programme that aims to show "how our understanding of the power of light affects our very understanding of science, art, medicine, astronomy and even religion".
In another science programme, Journeys from the Centre of the Earth, geologist Iain Stewart travels from the Egyptian pyramids to thermal springs in Turkey to investigate the links between rocks and the development of human civilization.
The channel's coverage of global affairs includes a documentary about bus drivers in Israel who do their jobs in spite of the suicide bombers who have made public transport a target for their attacks.
And as the US gears up for the presidential election showdown between George W Bush and John Kerry, the Storyville strand examines 50 years of the US defence industry.
There will also be off-beat contributions from the American comic Rich Hall during the election period.
In Tales from Europe, Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark tours former Eastern bloc states which have joined the EU this year to find out about the transition from communist past to modern future.
BBC4 will also show Shakespeare comedy Measure for Measure, filmed at the Globe Theatre in London, following on from a similar broadcast of Richard II last year.
It will also take a look at the world of commercial theatre in Theatre Biz, which will features actors such as Dame Judi Dench, Gillian Anderson, Rupert Graves and Prunella Scales.
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