IF you're determined to get the best view of the New Year fireworks but don't relish braving the crowded waterfront or even the elements, you could do a lot worse than watch them from your living room.
Both the terrestrial Chinese channels will be screening the 8pm display live. ATV Home is really going to town with a show starting at 7.30pm and featuring a protracted lead-in passage, while TVB Jade's hosts start chattering away from 7.55pm.
Of course TV coverage doesn't afford the broader harbour view panorama of watching from your balcony but, if the conditions are bad, you can't beat the zoom lens. And it doesn't matter if you don't speak Cantonese. Just turn down the volume and tune in to the radio simulcast at 8.00pm, on Radio 4.
THOSE rockets and flares actually look like providing the few bright spots in today's programming.
That's certainly true as far as a lacklustre line-up of movies goes. The original Cannonball Run may have had a few merits - Hongkong's own Jackie Chan being one of them - but the sequel is likely to send you running for cover.
The Cannonball Run II (Pearl 9.45pm, ORT 108 minutes) again sees Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise competing for US$1 million in a crazy cross-country car race against a load of other wackos.
There seems to be even less reasoning behind this one, and it's hard to fathom why walk-on walk-off players Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin and many more, decided to get involved.
