This column normally tries to steer clear of television programmes. This is partly because the television is rarely switched on in the Week Ending household, except for the news and the endless replays of children's videos.
Partly it is because the last thing any self-respecting Hong Kong journalist would want to emulate is the habit of British and American columnists who, when short of an issue, get hot under the collar about the latest episode of some television soap opera.
This is not because we are above such things in Hong Kong. You only need to think of some of the lurid pictures on the pages of our newspapers to realise there is very little we would not stoop to. It is just that there is so little on Hong Kong television worth getting excited about.
But a rare vote of thanks is due to ATV for that delightful interview with Lord Howe in its memorial to Deng Xiaoping .
The former British foreign secretary was reminiscing about a meeting with the late New Helmsman. Suddenly, as we listened to that soft, reassuringly mumbled delivery of his, we found ourselves recoiling in dismay at what we thought he was about to say.
He was explaining how, during the negotiations on the Joint Declaration, he had found himself facing 'a small, male . . . '. He paused dramatically for effect - just long enough to bring on a wince of disbelief. No sane person could possibly have imagined that a man as urbane and diplomatically experienced as Lord Howe was about to say something even faintly racist and condescending. Which is why Week Ending, for one, was beginning to doubt his own sanity.
But then his lordship plunged on with the story. '. . . version of Margaret Thatcher,' he continued, with that faint Howe twinkle.