Channel hop
This holiday season, tuck in to a bit of Anglo-American action with BBC America's The State Within (BBC Entertainment; Sundays at 9.25pm), 'a war-on-terror' drama that starts with a bang - literally. Within an hour of returning to Washington DC from London, British Ambassador Sir Mark Brydon (Jason Issacs, right) witnesses the suicide bombing of a commercial plane directly above the city, believed to be the work of British Muslims. As Sir Mark's team races to uncover the truth and protect British interests in the United States, a seemingly endless chain of shady military-industrial deals and political double-crossing unwinds - with those closest to Sir Mark in the thick of conspiracies that 'make Watergate look like a parking violation', as one of the characters observes.
Sir Mark is drawn into a plan to broker a deal between the US and an opponent of the ruthless president of Tyrgyztan, wherever that's supposed to be. Meanwhile, lawyer Jane Lavery (Eva Birthistle) seeks to prevent the execution of British national Luke Gardner (Jericho's Lennie James), whose past is the key to a plot to trigger a war in Central Asia. Sir Mark's reputation is brought into question by his relationship with a disgraced ex-ambassador.
For more instructional viewing, gear up for a holi-day feast with Jamie Oliver at Home (Asian Food Channel; Thursday at 10pm). In this Christmas special, Oliver takes the hassle out of the big meal with ideas on how to liven up the dishes without 'getting too poncey about it'. We meet some colourful characters such as raw foodist Brian Skilton and Gennaro Contaldo the Mad Italian.
Fellow British chef Heston Blumenthal show-cases his kitchen alchemy In Search of Perfection (BBC Lifestyle; Fridays at 8pm). Blumenthal trans-forms Britain's favourite dishes, looking at existing techniques and improving them. At the start of the programme, he muses that 'there are elements of what I do here that you can and should try at home'. For chicken tikka masala, he digs a six-foot hole in the floor of his restaurant, the Fat Duck, to create a tandoori oven. Imagine seeing that in Hong Kong.
If you are looking for other domestic projects, the producers of Downsize Me give suggestions on how to Downsize My Pet (Discovery Channel; Mondays at 11pm). With so many gourmet food shops, spas and mobile services for Hong Kong pets, our pooches are used to the royal treatment. But are we killing them with kindness? This series from New Zealand puts some of the nation's podgiest pets through a six-week health and fitness overhaul with the help of vet Sasha Nowell and trainer Alexis Banas. In most cases, training the owner seems to be a greater challenge than training the pet.
