In the early days of cable, there were some really classy channels.
A top-end arts documentary, Rudolf Nureyev - Dance to Freedom, gives the BBC a better than usual chance against Grayson Perry's latest classy series for Channel 4, and a show-off drama, an adaptation of Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser, got McKellen his listing, although the Academy can be seen to have snubbed his co-star Sir Anthony Hopkins.
10 30 P.M. (Cooking) TRIPPING OUT WITH ALIE & GEORGIA Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark, the Cooking Channel's "Classy Ladies," continue their sojourn to points of debauchery, with a visit to the town of Joshua Tree in the California desert.
Or, "dinner, dessert and booze in one chalice of multitasking," proclaims Alie Ward in the video that earned her and Georgia Hardstark a gig as the Cooking Channel's "Classy Ladies".
10 30 P.M. (Cooking) TRIPPING OUT WITH ALIE & GEORGIA Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark, the Cooking Channel's "Classy Ladies," embark for points of debauchery — first stop, Las Vegas, fueled by absinthe — in their latest foray into cocktail wizardry.
A budget of $18m, a script by Sopranos writer Terence Winter and direction by Martin Scorsese: you could hardly ask for more for a show chosen to launch a new channel showcasing classy HBO imports.
10 30 P.M. (Cooking) TRIPPING OUT WITH ALIE & GEORGIA Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark, the Cooking Channel's "Classy Ladies," conclude their tour to points of debauchery with a visit to Miami, where they take a synchronized swimming class in vintage swimsuits and search for the best Key lime pie.
There is something very self-aware and controlled about him in person: in a blue blazer, grey trousers, tortoiseshell glasses, cradling a leather-strapped Leica camera, he couldn't be trying any harder to channel the "classy cult-film dude" look.
"Penélope Cruz is one of the most beautiful, attractive and hitherto classy women on the entire planet," points out Channel 4 Film's Catherine Bray.
