But I was not in the US - I sat in front of my computer at home to watch the programme, which I had downloaded from the internet in the interests of research in about five hours.

The growing online availability of TV programmes, and films, is the latest threat to the entertainment industry still reeling from the effect of peer-to-peer programs, such as Kazaa and the now-defunct Napster.

After ER, I watched the latest instalment of thriller 24, a new episode of Frasier and a new episode of Friends, again all in the interests of research.

Almost all the programmes had been broadcast less than a day earlier in the US, many months before viewers in the UK and Europe will see them.

One friend who downloads drama The West Wing is more than a year ahead of episodes in the UK.

I used a program called BitTorrent to download the shows, a piece of software which allows multiple people to download the same programme at the same time.

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