Have your friend host a Slingbox for you. IMO unless it's a financial hardship you'll be well served to set up a second cablemodem and have your own DVR. You'll need one for timeshifting unless you LIKE staying up until 2 AM to watch a given show. While you can use the same cable modem you WILL need your own cable box/DVR.

You'll find quite a lot on UK Cable that you're used to over here though. In fact, some channels are just about 100% composed of US TV programs.

Buy ANY consumer electronics you can here before you go over. This includes routers, networking equpiment, etc. Most equipment can be set for operation in the UK. Everything just costs so much more there.

Look at a VoIP provider to maintain a US phone while in the UK, such as Sunrocket. You can even bring a US cordless phone and set it up so you'll have caller-ID, etc (just don't plug the US wall wart into the wall without a voltage step-down!)