SOMETHING spooky is happening in TV world, as news channels churn out credit crunching headlines, drama shows depict social breakdown and the end of the world as we know it.
Spurred on by dystopian movies such as Children of Men and 28 Days Later, apocalyptic programme makers have jumped on the bandwagon to offer a glimpse of humanity’s bleak future.
If the story-lines of two recent television series are anything to go by, it won’t be pretty, and judging at these poor attempts at recreating hard hitting films as budget drama series – you might want to end it now to avoid the day after tomorrow.
Surviors - BBC1 - (The Drama Strain)
The group, featuring Abby Grant, a middle-aged mother in search of her son Peter, and strong silent type Greg Preston aka: Jonson from Peepshow, face a world without electricity, clean running water or law and order.
The pair, who form an unlikely extended family, hole up in a country cottage and battle for food and supplies with a bunch of grotty pikies led by ‘dangerous’ Dexter a snarling pantomime villain slinging a shotgun.
Meanwhile, a Government minister, with the charisma of Alistair Darling on Valium, has set up an isolated bunker community, acting as a kibbutz where everyone has a part to play and trespassers will be prosecuted.
Likely Outcome: Faced in the nightmare situation of a never ending sitcom - the virus turns on itself.
Dead Set – Channel 4 - (Dawn of the Dunces)
Reality television contestants leave the Big Brother house to discover a terrible wasteland patrolled by bloodthirsty zombies.
“Does this mean we aren’t on TV anymore?” asks a dumb blonde as she watches mindless creatures chomping on the carcasses of their compatriots.
Whilst several house mates argue with a cross dressing Asian pretty-boy about whether or not to move an overweight woman who is “in shock”, three others leg it to a supermarket where they are confronted by two police men with the mental age of a couple of four year old boys.
Meanwhile, the show’s producer, who is trapped in an office, gobbles finger food, guzzles champagne and pisses in the corner, before collapsing on the floor in drunken stupor.
Likely Outcome: The zombies couldn’t possibly last 28 days because they’d run out of brains to feed on.
