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