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SCMP Reporter

I have this theory that Helena Bonham Carter sleeps in a dark wood four-poster bed, wearing a virgin white cotton nightgown, her dark locks pinned up in a bonnet, her head resting gently on a pile of cloudy duck-down pillows.

 A thick velvet gown lies draped on her linen-swathed bed, ready for her to slide into in the morning, silk slippers to encase her delicate feet.

 If there is one actress whose appearance and manner so perfectly appear to fit the roles she plays, it is the porcelain-skinned, pre-Raphaelite Bonham Carter.

 Even her traditional double-barrelled name is perfect for the period characters the young actress has made her own.

 She was only 19 when she starred in A Room With A View (World, 9.35pm), the exquisite Merchant/Ivory adaptation of E M Forster's droll comedy of manners and morals that was nominated for eight and won three Oscars.

 She has subsequently appeared in the Tudor Lady Jane Grey, Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, two other Forster adaptations, Where Angels Fear To Tread and Howards End and in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Only a brave casting agent would consider her for a modern role.

 It is still her feisty performance as Lucy Honeychurch in A Room With A View (the film that generated a thousand headlines) for which she is best remembered.

 The story begins in 1907 when Honeychurch goes off to Italy in the company of Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith), her spinster cousin and chaperone.

 In Florence at the Pensione Bertolini, they meet the charming Mr Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his son, George (Julian Sands).

 George is clearly smitten and during a daytrip takes the opportunity to kiss her, an event witnessed by Charlotte.

 Back in the safety of Surrey, where Lucy lives with her mother, all seems well until George and his father move into a villa nearby.

 Superb sets and costumes (which took one of the Oscars) help create the perfect period atmosphere, but it is the performances which so capture the right beat.

 There is not a faltering step from the superb crew, including support in Rupert Graves, Daniel Day Lewis, Judi Dench and Simon Callow as the Reverend Beebe (look out for the wonderful skinny-dipping scene).

RTHK's programme As Time Goes By (Pearl, 6.50pm) visits Central's Mid-Levels and examines its changing face.

 One of the first areas to be developed when Hong Kong became a colony, it has undergone many changes, but none as dramatic as in recent years with the arrival of the longest escalator in the world and high-rise apartment blocks.

 Yet, in among the modern flats, traditional architecture old temples, shrines and simple wooden structures can still be found.

 The contrasts are also apparent in the people who live there, from musicians, to market-stall holders to multi-millionaire bankers.

If you haven't already seen Con Air, don't watch The Making Of Con Air (Pearl, 11.20pm) which looks behind the scenes at the summer's smash hit.

 It's a great actioner with stunning special effects and some superb lines, but wait until you've seen the film to see how it was all done.

Tyra Banks, Sports Illustrated's 1997 swimsuit issue covergirl and the subject of Model (World, 8pm), goes to a Seventeen magazine photo shoot in New York with her mother, paints with children at a local ceramics shop and unwinds for dinner at Planet Hollywood.

It's strange how one nation's curse is another's way of life.

 One of the reports on 60 Minutes Plus (Pearl, midnight) looks at the gambling mania that has swept New Zealand since the introduction of casinos.

 Twelve per cent of the population is now considered to be 'pathologically' addicted to gambling.

 What must the figure be in Hong Kong? 



A view of Helena