Inside the medieval mind BBC4, 9pm Eastenders BBC1, 7.30pm Have you ever wondered what period of history you'd go back to if you could travel through time? The year 1914 has to be in the running. If a time-traveller had rugby-tackled Archduke Franz Ferdinand out of the line of fire in Sarajevo, there's an outside chance the phrase "world war" would never have been coined.

The medieval period, though - from the ninth through to the fourteenth centuries - would be marked "essential travel only". To understand why, you only had to hear Professor Robert Bartlett describe an account by Ralph Abbot of Coggeshall from around 1200, of how fishermen came upon a wild man in the sea, hauled him to the local church and marvelled at how he failed to show any sign of "human reverence or belief" even when subjected to "dire and frequent torture".

Being rationally minded was liable to get you into trouble. As late as 1277, when works of philosophy and science had begun to penetrate the fog of superstition, Roger Bacon, "the father of modern science", was imprisoned for stressing the importance of verifying beliefs by doing experiments.

All this would have been fascinating and unsettling even without the Blair Witch Project camera work and atonal screeching that were thoroughly irritating distractions throughout the first 10 minutes. One minute you were hurtling through woods with anguished voices whispering on the soundtrack; the next, Bartlett was peering at you lugubriously down a convex lens through a dark filter. Moody shots of gargoyles would have sufficed.

In spite of all that, this was a superior effort. Sensationalism masquerading as scholarship has made watching historical documentaries a bit of a lottery, but Inside the Medieval Mind balanced amusing curios and shocking events with serious analysis. You actually learned something, particularly that, in spite of the superstition, there were bright shards of illumination in the intellectual gloom and a deep desire to understand the world better, with a few brave souls prepared to risk their lives to defend rational thought. Part two, on the medieval view of love and sex, should be worth a look.

The medievals prized virginity, though that's unlikely to be much solace to poor Steven Beale in EastEnders . As well as being terrified of having sex with Stacey in last night's episode, he had to contend with his dad's unwanted but eager advice on how to go about it. Unfortunately, Ian (Adam Woodyatt), a lifelong fogey, has the sex appeal of a badly dressed newt, which made the whole enterprise rather off-putting. "Just let the music wash over you," he told a mortified Steven. "How do you feel?"

"Like I want to run," said Steven (Aaron Sidwell), echoing the feelings of half the audience. Ian ploughed on regardless. "One of the main problems is not getting over-excited," he said earnestly, as Steven buried his head in his hands. "What I sometimes do is try and name the entire England football team, including the subs." He was about to demonstrate his handling skills on a tailor's dummy when the door slammed, with Steven on the other side of it. A narrow escape for him - and us.

It was even more uncomfortable for Steven over at Stacey's, where things just didn't work out. Was it all teenage angst? No, it was rather more, as we discovered when Steven went home and slumped in an armchair with a gay magazine.

Can he face up to his sexuality and come out before being forcibly enrolled in the Ian Beale Lovin' the Ladies masterclass? Oh, I do hope so.