Green Guide's Critical View

LUKE NGUYEN'S VIETNAM

SBS One, 7.30pm

JOURNEYING through magical Halong Bay with this affable guide is a sensory treat. The beauty of tiny island peaks rising from the mist and the colourful cluster of houseboats that make up a floating village set the scene for some spirited cooking demonstrations that combine exciting local ingredients with an insight into a rare and fascinating way of life. Tonight Nguyen whips up a sizzling dish of pippies with lemongrass, while balancing on the deck of a Chinese junk. And he keeps an impressive lotus pose while putting a twist on a traditional "drinking dish" of wok-tossed mussels with the patriarch of a fishing family. BRIDGET McMANUS

PAY TV

ROSS KEMP: BATTLE FOR THE AMAZON

BBC Knowledge, 8.30pm

DOCO maker Ross Kemp is in Peru for this episode, and begins by visiting a coca plantation where adults and children process the leaves using acids, kerosene and bleach. Of course, all the noxious chemicals get dumped straight into the river system and if that were not bad enough, cocaine is a big earner for the murderous Shining Path guerillas. Kemp finds a similar story with goldmining deforestation, toxic chemicals being dumped in rivers and so on. Most shocking of all, though, is Kemp's visit to a jungle mining village whose brothels are full of girls as young as 11. BRAD NEWSOME

MOVIE

SHADOW OF THE EAGLE (1950)

ABC1, 12.20am

CLOSING on 60 years, this film hasn't improved with age. But what was good about it 60 years ago is still good principally the excellent black-and-white cinematography of Erwin Hillier. Despite a pedestrian script that hardly inspires its stars, Richard Greene and Valentina Cortese, there's an OK performance by Binnie Barnes as Catherine the Great, who sends Count Alexei Orloff to Vienna in 1770 to seize the errant Princess Elizabeth Tarakanova and repatriate her to Russia. DOUG ANDERSON