Spooks - Episode 6

It was with relief that Spooks returned from the financial confusion of last week’s episode to a more easily understood, though by no means less complicated, clash of peace delegation parties. With the Palistinian and Iranian parties in town and Londons governmental and NATO overseers, the Spooks were back on the grid to protect, maintain and keep terror threats to an absolute whisper to keep from un-nerving anyone in the delegation parties. So when a secret and high alert terrorist weapon suddenly turned up for sale on Ebay the team were set into hyper drive and Lucas was sent to retrieve the item as quickly and as quietly as possible.

Arriving on the doorstep of the Ebay seller it was surprising to see that he was in fact far from a terrorist, more he was just a teen out for a quick buck or two. Quickly acquiring the weapon back into MI5 hands Lucas was set to leave when, as always happens, complications arrived in the form of secret agents, seemingly flying under the grid.

With Lucas, Dean Mitchell, our dear teen gun seller, and his mother on the run it was up to Ros and the rest of team back at base to discover what was going on…..this made all the much harder when they discovered that it was actually a rogue agent called Michael Sands, he had been monitoring every word and movement made by the team, and thus all communication with Lucas had to be kept to an absolute minimum. The story unfolded with Dean having been witness to the assassin of a photographer, the gun used wiped out all electric mechanisms and so one pull of the lever and the hapless motorcyclist and photographer had ended up under the wheels of a rather large lorry. Dean, having cycled like frenzy away from the scene was followed by Sands, and in a twist of fortune Sands ended up being hit by a car and Dean, seizing the opportunity grabbed the bag plus gun and ran. However, it wasn’t that simple, there was something more that Sands wanted, it wasn’t just the gun and Lucas, making the connection realised that there was something in the backpack, and thereupon retrieving it discovered a small photo containing chip, a photo of the governmental first minister trying to coerce the head of the NATO and overseer of the delegation team, to quit. It was all carried out in wonderful Spooks fashion, running, jumping, kidnapping, hiding, all the elements that provide a great Spooks episode. But Spooks decided to take it one further. Upon recovery of the evidence and end of the delegation the team realised that Dean and his mother had to go into witness protection, Dean had seen too much, he knew too much and he would always be in danger. But as many obstreperous teens do Dean rebelled and ran at the last minute, leaving a surprising and tragic end to the story as Dean took a bullet to his head. Having spent the entire episode protecting Dean, Lucas had failed at the last and un-seemingly timed minute.

Of course, Sugarhorse continued to rattle on in the background with Harry turning to trusted Connie to meet a foreign asset coming with important information. The usual subterfuge and undercover tactics were used to make their meeting of as innocuous as possible and soon Harry had the file in his hands, the one that would reveal who the mole was, only problem was, upon opening it, the mole was himself! Framed and in direct line of fire with his team wondering whether he was the mole or not would Harry, a Spooks institution, finally see his last days?

Is it all about to end for Harry Pearce?

BBC – Mondays at 21.00

Survivor - NEW SERIES

With the BBC finally starting to live up to the licence payers money this past Sunday saw the revival of the hit series “Survivors”. Remade from the 1970’s original, written by Terry Nation also creator of Dr Who, the 90minute pilot episode hit our screens with the contemporary explosion that was much needed to start the 21st century’s new take on the classic story…..and it didn’t disappoint.

 Having not actually been alive in the 70’s I had no idea what was in store….a virus wiping out most people on earth but other than that, not a clue. The opening episode took much time setting the scene with that splendid disaster movie format, politician’s trying to keep a lid on things, everyday families not knowing what was going on but trying to go about their daily lives regardless. But it soon became very obvious that this wasn’t just a case of the bad flu rounds, and when people started dying rapidly the apocalyptic terror quickly seemed to dawn on our screen survivor’s. Tom (Max Beesley) locked in his prison cell due to lack of guards watched his cellmate die yet he himself had no symptoms at all, Al Sadiq (Phillip Rhys) partied at a nightclub before taking a girl back to bed, only to wake in the morning and find her dead whilst Samantha Willis (Nikki Amuka-Bird) made a final phone call to discover that both her husband and children were ill before carrying on with her governmental duties to the end. Here were our survivor’s, maybe a bit of classic textbook stereotypes, but throw them all together and what would happen?

 But as with our modern and newly improved BBC there are always twists. Abby Grant (Julie Graham) our leading lady soon started to develop symptoms of the virus and before we knew it her husband was cradling her limp body as the virus took hold and her quest to find her son (who was away at some sort of holiday camp) seemed all but over. But a day or two later after the pandemic had really taken hold a gasping Abby awoke from her death bed after surviving it through only to find her husband, along with most of the rest of the world dead. Likewise Jenny Collins (Freema Agyeman) started to develop symptoms and rushed herself and her flatmate to the local hospital where upon they sought out their friend, and doctor, Anya Raczynski (Zoe Tapper) who finally admitted that once the virus took hold there was nothing she or anyone could do. Their housemate died and then in a further twist of horrific fate Jenny Collins, survivor of the original show, also fell victim leaving new character Anya amidst a sea of dead bodies.

After losing housemates Patricia and Jenny Collins, survivor in the orginal series, new character Anya tries to cope with her new world

And now we wonder, what is the fate of these few survivors? Tom is already making severely ominous signals – he killed the surviving screw to get out of jail and soon began to prey upon a scared and scantily clad woman. Why was he in jail for 20years? Abby, her search for her son soon becoming obviously time wasting befriended Greg Preston (Paterson Joseph) and by the end of the 90 minutes we had a team of six survivors in what could very well prove to be possibly the worst suited group in history…..but were there more? How would they survive? Will their group dynamics prove to be the end of their survival? I’m sure of one thing, its not going to be an easy ride!

BBC – Tuesday’s at 21.00

Coronation Street - Stars to walk cobbles?

"Fawlty Towers" star Andrew Sachs and former "Dynasty" actress Stephanie Beacham are said to be in talks over joining ITV's popular and long running soap Coronation Street.

Sachs, recently caught up in the BBC's Ross/Brand furor is said to be joining the street as Norris Cole's brother after the classic BBC comedy actor expressed interest. Scriptwriters "first started working on a possible character for Andrew Sachs six months ago" a spokesperson for the soap confirmed adding "We have been in discussions with Andrew about the proposed storyline which would be seen on screen sometime next year."

Meanwhile Stephanie Beacham is midway through the audition process for a new part, rumoured to be Ken Barlow's new love interest. A spokespeson confirmed that they had indeed seen the popular actress but added "A decision on the final casting has yet to be made". 

So does this confirm the parting of the ways for Deirdre and Ken? And I'm intrigued to find out about Norris Cole's brother....will they be chalk and cheese? Will they be like two peas from a pod? One thing that can be certain, they'll drive Rita up the wall!

Spooks - Episode 5

It's all very well to have complex plots, surprising twists and miraculous savings of the country but when it gets so complicated that you don't really have the foggiest what is going on then you might as well be staring at a blank screen. I felt a bit like this after watching Episode 5 of Spooks, I enjoyed the agents saving the country from yet another threat but I hadn't really a clue what was actually going on.

Al Qaeda took a side step this week as the BBC tackled the world's economic crisis and like a phoenix from the flames came Maynard, a man that preyed on the economic downfall by insiders trading. It was apparent from the outset that with all the jargon being thrown around like it was everyday banter that I wasn't going to understand so with that in mind I simply sat back and watched as the team merged into their appropriate slots so as to carry out their operation flawlessly. Ross, becoming Jenny Hunter, soon ingraciated herself upon their target and was pulling numbers, figures, and share prices out of head like it was no ones business, whilst a rather handsome Lucas played along as her fiance Peter. Ben was renegaded to a coffee shop worker - only being able to pass Ros messages written on the inside of coffee cup holders, whilst Jo was on the street.

The crux of the matter was that financial pirate Maynard set the market shares in the BBC's fictional bank plummeting causing choas to the markets, panic to the public - of which Malcolm was one having his entire life savings with the bank concerned, and the British government clutching at straws as to what to do. If the government made a public announcement about the banks real debt - 65million - the economy and customer confidence would crumble, if they paid off the debt and kept it hidden the United Kingdom would be bankrupt. Things started to go array almost from the offset when Acer Darlek, right side man realised that Lucas was an agent and therefore so was Ros. Malcom was falling apart at the thought of his life savings vanishing, Jo was seeing the man she murdered everywhere she went, and as usual Harry was off the grid, tearing apart Connie's home with the adamant opinion that she was a mole. With a gun to head Ros must've been feeling very very lonely. Of course, our cold calculating vixen soon reversed the roles, had the Russian right side man on the floor and the financier target, trusting Ros after an explicit night of passion, switched sides, threw all his money back into the market thinking that the government was going to bluff him and lost everything in the process. Job once again done.

All this was very dramatic but my main fear was when Ros, after talking to Harry about Jo's problem marched off to find her with an envelope. A sudden fear overcame me and for a split few seconds I thought Jo was about to become the next Spook victim, being removed from the grid due to her paranoid delusions. It was with relief that a somewhat surprisingly soft spoken Ros showed her pictures of a dead Boscard confirming that Jo had indeed killed him and he wasn't walking the streets everywhere she went. Meanwhile Harry, after discovering nothing but a tape labelled to him at Connie's house, was finally convinced that she had in no way passed information to others about Sugarhorse - or even that she knew anything about it. It was Lucas that came up with the goods, remember one word that he'd heard through his tortured state - Pilgrim - and it threw up some damming evidence against Harry's old mentor the SpyCatcher.

I want to know more about Sugarhorse, I want to see Jo get a decent operation, and all I can ask is that after this episodes very confusing storyline they bring it back to Ruskies, Yanks and good old Al Qaeda terrorists!

BBC - Mondays at 21.00

Natural World - Mountain Gorilla's

Celebrating 25 years of the “Natural World”, BBC 2’s splendid natural history series was back tonight with an in depth look at the Mountain Gorilla’s of Rwanda, specifically a silverback called Titus.

Watching it on a whim I was soon drawn into this fascinating world of the Gorilla and found myself quite affected by the story told. With my background in Zoology I have always been aware of the mountain Gorilla’s, of Diana Fossey and her plight and was therefore intrigued when I found out that the leading man of tonight’s show was a Gorilla born under the watchful eye of Diane Fossey and her team. Having an in depth history of Titus’s background, where he was born, how he survived, how he overcame the largest of obstacles to become the longest running King Silverback in our records was quite astounding.

Titus relaxes amongst the vegetation

Born to Flossey, Titus found himself alone at a young age after the group was overtaken by a rogue male who killed Titus’s baby sister. With an unnerving display of humanitarian characteristics his mother and several other females fled the group leaving Titus abandoned and alone with a group of males, the leader being the murderer of his sister. For the next few years the male troupe remained intact, showing a homosexual behaviour never before seen within Gorilla’s, until, after the death of a silverback from another group, a number of females appeared on the scene. Beester, the leader of the Titus’s group, killed two of the new female’s babies and ran the rest of the males out of town but yet again in another unknown behavioural characteristic allowed his good friend Titus to remain behind. In the following years Titus gained in strength and allegiance, siring his first child unbeknown to Beester at the tender age of eleven.

But it was Titus’s character that stood out. He’d been abandoned, he’d survived against all odds, the murderer and leader of a male troupe had allowed him to survive and then, in another bizarre twist Titus somehow managed a coo to take over the troupe without spilling any bloodshed. This was an outstanding character.

Natural World wrapped up with another shock. As Titus took his troupe to the summit of their mountain territory his strange friendship with another silverback, Kuryama, amidst the troupe (allowing another fully grown silverback within a group is in itself extremely rare) was broken as Kuryama took, through non aggressive terms, most of the group back down the mountain leaving Titus with only a few of his loyalist supporters. But it was then revealed that this other male, had in fact been confirmed through DNA sampling, as Titus’s first ever child. Titus himself took his remaining group down the other side of the mountain into Congo and later emerged with a newly born baby in tow, his siring days weren’t over yet.

Some of Titus's many offspring including overthrower Kuryama

But it was the intensity of this 40minute show that really struck me. Here were living, breathing, intelligent beings. A mother fled a group after her baby was murdered, a father allowed his son to remain in his troupe up until the point where he himself was overthrown. Why are we allowing these creatures to be murdered and poached. They are our closest living relatives, they are intelligent, and yet we are increasingly making them extinct. At one point in time they ascended into the mountains and we took our first steps towards humanity. It could have easily been the other way around, one small step the other way and the roles could be reversed. Natural World should be watched, pondered upon and then your feelings acted on.

BBC 2, Tuesday’s at 20.00

Spooks - Episode 4

The BBC really excelled themselves when creating Spooks and it seems that seven series on and they’re still not going to disappoint us. With Al Qaeda planting bombs left, right and centre, the Ruskies back on the scene trying to undermine our every turn and those pesky Yanks boldly going where common sense would tell anyone not to interfere, this latest season of Spooks is shaping up beautifully.

But, as with all good thrillers not everything is to be expected so with this weeks olive branch, offered by a surprising Al Qaeda leader, a certain nervousness and apprehension was added to the mix. Harry and Ros, marvellously manipulating the Home Secretary, managed to persuade all members involved that meeting with the Al Qaeda representative was a good idea and soon set off with a dazzling array of tracking, radiation particle and satellite devices to secure that they never lost sight of their target. Of course, nothing is ever straight forward, and they soon lost all communication but with a little gadget of Malcolm’s (a cunning device tracker that released specific particles which could be tracked – and all in the shape of smartly fitted ring on Harry’s finger) they ensured that, at some point, they could re-establish his whereabouts.

 He was indeed there to offer an olive branch, he was there to secure the future of the middle east, he was there to negotiate. And negotiate he did, for the public pardon and release from all further CPS matters of two Guantanamo bay prisoners he would give the team the location of an Al Qaeda bomb placed in London. Promptly ending the meeting Ros and Harry quickly set about some more manipulation of the government whilst the rest of the team set about tracking Ossetic, the negotiator, however it was here that complications soon really started rearing their ugly heads.

Firstly the Home Secretary made his public statement in the Houses of Parliament, only it wasn’t good enough for Ossetic and he refused to give the bomb’s location. The team then set off to pick him up, only to be beaten to it by another squad which they later found out with the help of Malcolm’s ring device were the Yanks. Whilst arguing for his release they managed to strain the American allegiance even more, and at the same time Lucas was given information from his estranged wife that the bomb would go off ten minutes earlier than they’d been informed of. Did they disarm the bomb and let the Russian’s know that Lucas had returned to them, or did they let the bomb go off risking civilians lives? Well the Spooks team were on it and coming up with a third option managed to clear the restaurant, disarm the bomb and provide a fake explosion saving both Lucas and his ex’s lives from the Russian’s in the process. Job Done. London Saved.

Meanwhile “Sugar Horse” moved subtly on with Harry’s “spycatcher” insinuating that Connie, who was around at the time of the operation, could indeed be the leak. Would Harry trust Connie or his own past teacher? It remains to be seen. And, oh yes, the American’s never wanting to not have it their way blew up Ossetic’s plane as he returned to Afghanistan. Yep, they stuck their oar in again and with Ossetic passing vital information to Harry about the latest middle eastern weapons before he died, they managed to ensure that the job for our dear Spook’s team just got a lot harder.


BBC - Mondays at 21.00

Britannia High - Episode 3

With its ratings slumping ITV desperately dragged Britannia High to the primetime slot of 7pm this past Sunday, to little effect. The problem isn't the timeslot here, the problem is the show itself. What may have looked like a great idea on paper isn't working on television and I'll be absolutely amazed if it goes further than the 9 pre-filmed episodes of this series.

With no mention of Danny's dyslexia from last week we jumped straight into the singing and dancing disaster with Jez's story, quickly realising that he was lying to his new found fame seeking friends about who he was and where he'd come from. I didn't much care to be honest. It soom emerged that his father wanted him to go to business school, Jez had enrolled at Britannia High without saying anything and soon everything came pouring out into the open with many tears and angst ridden songs. The only refreshing thing here was that his father made no bother about his son being gay, it was a given, it hadn't been brought up in a negative or positive way, it has just been let be. Where as most stories surrounding gay characters tend to be geared towards their sexuality it was encouraging to see that here it was Jez himself that was the focus, not which side he batted for. However, that said, this is not enough to save this quickly sinking ship (though I fear it's already beneath the waters). With lack lustre and somewhat obvious storylines, characters that fit into the classical stereotypes but don't actually live up to them, and some pretty bad acting, I think its perhaps time for Britannia High to close.

Cattrall Confirms 2nd Movie

Wonderous news bloggers, Kim Cattrall today confirmed rumours that a second Sex and the City Movie is to be filmed, with the stars gearing up to start next summer. Appearing on the Paul O’Grady with stand in host Melanie B, Cattrall announced that there indeed would be a sequel but that is was “difficult getting everybody who's so incredibly busy all together at the same time"

Being a HUGE fan of Sex and the City I must say I can’t wait and am filled with anticipation to hear this news. The movie out earlier this year was a wonderful addition to the already well loved brand but cut short many of our favourite 3 ladies stories choosing to concentrate mainly on Carrie’s on/off relationship with Big. Let’s hope that now they’re married movie number 2 will have a stable relationship between these former nightmare daters and will instead concentrate on all four ladies and their fabulous lives.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Episode 3

In the world of the Connors, life is getting extremely complicated. Not that it wasn’t before, what with time travelling to the future to escape pursuit by a killer only to find he’s followed you and he’s not the only one. But now, whilst killing, running, blowing things up and trying to stay alive, all the while plotting to stop Armageddon, John’s decided to fall in love and Sarah’s ex husband and new wife have arrived on the scene.

John, albeit the hero of the world, is still a teenager and what do all teenagers do? Disobey their mothers. Nipping off into town, deadly “sister” in tow, John promises to stick with Cameron but is soon persuaded by his new love interest Riley to do a runner and have a fun “normal” day with her. Cameron’s not best pleased – although does she have feelings since she’s a terminator – especially when John gives her the slip and she ends up spending the day playing catch up all over town.

Meanwhile, receiving a frantic and terrified call from wife Michelle, Charley Dixon recruits help from Sarah and Derek. Turning up at her location they soon discover that she’s been tied in a chair, attached to a bomb, and likely to explode the second she moves from her seat. However, Sarah curious to why the terminator simply didn’t dispose of Michelle, quickly realises that it’s a plot to take her and the resistance cell away from John so he can more easily be disposed of himself. Whipping the fake bomb away and gearing up to tear after a now critically endangered John – not that he wasn’t critically endangered before, he has got an assassin after him – things don’t go quite as planned as a cunning system to steal John’s cell number and record his conversation with his mother ends with an exploding phone mast, unfortunately fatally wounding Michelle Dixon. One down, several to go.

 John, being scammed into meeting his mother (or in this case the Terminator using his mother’s voice) at the pier is soon in mortal danger as he finds himself without his mother or Cameron for help. Plunging into the water of the ocean he finds himself extremely lucky – it seems Terminator’s cannot swim!! With all of this going on I fear the Connor’s will never cease Skynet from coming into operation. Michelle Dixon’s dead, surely John’s new girlfriend Riley isn’t going to get out without at least a scratch and everyone seems too busy with surviving than actual planning to save the world. Meanwhile Shirley Manson’s cropped up as the extremely evolved Terminator Catherine Weaver, what place she has in this story is not yet apparent, she doesn’t seem too concerned with trying to kill John at this precise moment. I’m sure the time will come when she is.

Virgin 1 (Virgin - 122, Sky 121, Freeview 20), Thursday's at 21.00

Spooks - Episode 3

With the hottest terrorist topic in our modern world Al Qaeda were back in force on Spooks this week, with a gang preparing to detonate several bombs in and around London’s markets. Newly recruited Ben Kaplan (Alex Lanipekun) found himself this weeks victim as he solely infiltrated the bombing unit, living, breathing, praying and becoming the extremist that would truly hide his real identity from his terrorist cell. It’s a dangerous thing, nipping out for quick meetings with Lucas in the middle of the night, knowing that you’re living with a guy that’s prepared to blow up civilians and cause mass destruction and if you’re caught then you hope for the easy way out – death.

Ros, charging the Spooks unit as Harry chased a whimsical lead, was her usual cold and calculating self as the team followed the three stages that had been set out for the operation – waterfall (the deluge of terrorist specific words and threats on the internet), dry run (where they knew that the terrorist cell would act out the exact plan of the detonations) and finally the actual bombing. They wanted the big fish in all of this, and so waiting was their only game. The only problem they hadn’t foreseen was that, upon the start of the dry run and Kaplan actually managing to get a look at the bombs, they'd been thrown a red herring and the dry run was in actual fact the real run. With Spooks tailing the four bombers (3 foxes being the terrorists and hawk – Kaplan, now armed with a armed bomb capable of mass destruction) the operation was in full throttle as Ros, Connie and Malcolm waited anxiously back at head quarters. With precise decision the team manage to disarm the first 3 bombs and take out the bombers, finally freeing Kaplan from his undercover nightmare. Unfortunately for Jo, who was tailing the fourth bomber, she didn’t manage to stop an explosion in the middle of a busy market. Clearing the area, two police took down the bomber only to have him explode his bag from underneath them, the team at head quarters in an anxious strain whilst they waited for Jo to confirm that yes, she was still alive. You never quite know with Spooks, just because someone died last week does not mean it won’t happen again, anyone can die at any time. But luckily for us she did and I say that because Jo brings that one bit of humanity that is needed to the ensemble. Ros is cold, Harry, Lucas and even Ben get on with the job concerned but it is with Jo that we actually see remorse, emotion, and pure terror. Indeed, this perhaps makes her the best spook of all, she feels everything, takes time to heal, takes time to get over things, but still comes back and does it over and over again and that takes guts.

Jo Portman (Miranda Raison) provides some much needed humanity

With Jo back in the fold and the bombers averted from their mass destruction our attention is turned to a distinctively absent Harry. Reliving a moment of Russian torture Lucas remembers the words “Sugar Horse” and upon hearing these words a concerned Harry seeks out his old mentor, the Spycatcher, to find out more. Unbeknown to him his old mentor plays him, and we get the distinct feeling that even Harry is now in way over his own head. What is Sugar Horse? Why were the Russian’s trying to get information on it? And does Ros actually have a heart? I'm sure we'll get more info, at least on the former two, in next weeks compelling episode

BBC – Mondays at 21.00

Miss Naked Beauty - Episode 3

It’s time for Gok, bangers and baps again and the competition to find a new ambassador women and someone to be crowned “Miss Naked Beauty” the contest begins to hot up.

A surprise visit from the man himself has the unsuspecting remaining girls caught out this week as Gok turns up at their hotel rooms to go through their makeup products to see just how much of the crap they really have….and to make matters worse he then shoves them out the door without a scrap of make-up on. But there’s always a point to his plan and soon the girls are lined up, blindfolded, in front of horrendously sized images of their faces and their skins ages. The results are pretty shocking, just by caking your face in foundation, by sleeping in left over makeup and from generally not taking care of your skin you’re literally killing it and many of the girls are shocked to find that their skin age is in fact several years above their own age.

Lucinda learns her skin's real age

At least with Gok you can count on one thing, he might make you do something not so nice, but in true Wan fashion, he rewards the girls with a capsule makeup box (for a natural look of course) and a hairstyling session to take the girls back to how they should look, off with the hair dye, off with the extensions, out with the straightening irons and in with the curves, waves and pleasantly surprising flowing locks.

Next up and the task to save a group from the elimination is a little trip to Romford!! Such places shouldn’t be shown on TV….should they? Their task? To stand outside a nightclub and convince the party going girls of Essex to remove their makeup that they’d spent hours applying, and then go clubbing ea natural! It was actually a pretty clever task, convincing these girls isn’t easy, I’m not sure I’d be up for it, but with girly banter and lots of flattery the teams soon had their tickets (pink and blue accordingly for each team) pouring in the nightclub was soon filled with fresh faced and very attractive girls who indeed, didn’t need a scrap of make up on to look great!

But of course, it is a competition, and that means there must be cuts! The Blue’s won the task (our favourites Lucinda and Jo therefore through to next week) and so it was crunch time for the losers. Tiny little Amy is so cute, but her voice was being lost, Dalia was becoming feisty, not the behaviour of an Ambassador, and Denise, well she just didn’t really know who she was, what she was doing and where she fitted into the competition. Gok & Myleene gave Dalia another chance so its goodbye to tiny Amy and Denise the dramatic.

Dalia survives the cut

Channel 4 - Tuesday's at 20.00

Dead Set

As the week geared up to Halloween, Dead Set hit our E4 screens with a quiet but bloody entrance. Unfortunately, life being the way it is, I couldn't catch it at the time, but a Sunday afternoon recovering with On Demand and I was soon up to date with all the latest going's on from the fictional Big Brother house.

Set in modern Britain, with the current mass hysteria in fame, celebrity and reality TV, Dead Set was a modern take on Dawn of the Dead, with the supermarket being replaced with our own dear Big Brother compound. I'm not sure what I was expecting, I think a mediocre, slash horror/comedy show which whilst entertaining wouldn't have been much to write home about - how wrong could I be! I was blown away by the sheer horror and original creativity of the show. At times I had my hands to my face in terror and I can really say I thought it was on a TV par with "28 Days Later".

Filming of the pre-zombie extracts took place whilst Big Brother 2008 happened so the set was real, the crowds were real, Davina was real. The first hour long episode slowly built the tension with Kelly, the poor trodden upon production assistant running around trying to sort everything out (as us runner's do!) and the producer from hell, an arrogant, stressed, sexually inappropriate and Ricky Gervais office esc character generally screaming and being horrendous to everyone. But it was when the zombie horror took hold that the real terror struck. As the production office went down and a confused Davina, mid eviction interview, tried to understand what was going on, the residents in the Big Brother House were blissfully ignorant. Seeing Davina running, screaming and then having her throat ripped out was pretty horrendous, I mean, its Davina McCall! The Big Brother reunion, hosting a whole assortment of cameo's, also stirred gut wrenching feelings as Ashleyne, Brian, Imogen, screamed, ran, scrambled but were one by one bitten and ripped to pieces. It was pretty gory and wonderful stuff!

As all us runners do, Kelly managed to survive the onslaught and broke her way into the Big Brother House, whilst the ghastly producer and recently evicted housemate were holed up in another room, a zombie Davina trying to smash her way through the door. But this is only the start, it all starts to go horribly wrong as housemates, as they do, begin to fight, backstab, want to escape. I won't tell you who survives, who doesn't survive and what generally happens because it's TOO great to spoil. I loved it. I'll be buying it on DVD. And Davina, our hero, was genuinely awesome.

See the website here

Britannia High - Episode 2

Much as some of the modern series have done with format, one character development per episode is at Britannia High's musically explosive centre. Last week's pale, traumatised and naive Lauren quickly fell into her place with fello students this week as our viewers' eye was firmly focused at Danny, Lauren's new muse and Britannia High's answer to Troy Bolton.

The musical numbers continued though sometimes they felt more out of place than the cast's obvious age difference from their characters and the undertones of the peripheral cast were continued with Claudine's bitchiness to Lauren (in real life she is an absolute sweetheart) and the random, trying to live up to ditzy skin's classic Cassie, character of Lola.

It was all a bit obvious to be honest. Last week we had naive, country girl with massive talent trying to fit into the vicious world of celebrity, dance and music and Episode 2 went along the lines of - top high school hunk with incredible gifts for dance fails in everything else. As the program progressed Danny (Mitch Hewer) became more and more resentful to his fellow classmates and teachers trying to help him, pushing away Lauren whilst at it, and generally being a complete pain. Taking his attention away from his actual failing grades he launched himself into showcasing himself, completing the oddly placed musical numbers and becoming the school's newest rep. It all came to a crux when Girls Aloud's Nicola and Kimberly came to give the school a "Q & A" session and Danny, being the school's rep was asked to read out the hand picked questions. With a frantic flurry of brow furrowing it became obvious that something was wrong and after storming out of the hall, humiliated and upset, it was revealed that Danny had dyslexia and couldn't read a thing. Five minutes later he was sent off to a residential reading and spelling course and that was the end of that.

I'm sorry to say that this show is very quickly flagging. I was very up for being impressed and hoping that one of ITV's new forefront entertainment programs would indeed be that, forefront and ground breaking. Instead you wish the ground would open up and swallow what is likely to become a great big failing mess as the series continues. I will continue watching, Mitch is a fitty, Sapphire Elia was lovely in real life, and I want to believe that it can better but with only a run of 9 episodes and 2 already down its going to have to do it fast.