No13 - 18th March 2009

* Warning – this edition may contain spoilers – proceed with caution *

This month I'm going to begin with a somewhat belated look at Being Human (BBC Three). You may recall that the channel aired a pilot episode last year which I raved about in this very column (April 2008 if you want to go back and read it) concluding my review by hoping that a full series would be commissioned, and thankfully the Beeb have now obliged. This six part drama series focuses on three very unusual characters who share a flat together - Mitchell (Aiden Turner), a vampire, George (Russell Tovey), a werewolf, and Annie (Lenora Crichlow), a ghost. Over the course of the series these three misfits have to come to terms with how their afflictions affect their current lifestyle, both as individuals and as a group.

George meets a fellow werewolf (Dean Lennox Kelly) and then has to wrestle with the emotions that come from having a relationship with a colleague at the hospital where he works, but being forced to conceal his true identity from her. Annie discovers that her death stemmed from an argument with her ex-boyfriend who pushed her down a flight of stairs and is desperate for revenge. It's Mitchell who faces the biggest challenge, an outcast from his fellow bloodsuckers led by Herrick who wants to create a vampire army, he must fight his natural instincts to join them, a task made harder as his girlfriend Lauren is now one of them. As if all of this is not enough, George, Annie and Mitchell also have to deal with the community around them who in one chilling episode brand the two lads as paedophiles.

Being Human is an odd beast, a curious mix of horror, comedy and social commentary. Some parts don't quite work but taken as a whole it's a drama that is fresh, exciting and full of new ideas. Credit must go in no small part to writer Toby Whithouse who's been able to portray these three staples of the horror genre and give them a new spin, showing their 'human' side as it were. If there's one weak link then it would have to be the character of Annie - there never seems to be a good explanation as to why only certain people can see her, and her whole interaction with objects around her seems vague at best; if she can't eat or drink then why is she constantly making cups of tea? No offence to Crichlow (who was perfect in Sugar Rush) but she just doesn't quite nail the character in the way that Andrea Riseborough did in the pilot. Turner (replacing Guy Flanagan) does a solid job but again it's Russell Tovey who takes the plaudits, his impassioned, vulnerable portrayal of George showing exactly why he's one of the most in-demand young actors working today. A second series should be a formality.

After bowing out of Spooks in dramatic fashion last Autumn, Rupert Penry-Jones recently returned to our screens to lead the cast of Whitechapel (ITV 1) a three-part drama series about a Jack the Ripper copycat killer. He plays DI Chandler, a young copper being fast-tracked through the force heading his first manhunt, a murder in Whitechapel. He's paired up with DS Marsh (Phil Davis), an experienced old-school type of policeman who doesn't exactly relish the new broom that Chandler wants to bring in to the investigation. As comparisons to the old Ripper cases are made they enlist the help of Buchan (Steve Pemberton), a London tour guide and the foremost 'Ripperologist' with his own theories on who the real Jack the Ripper was.

I think Whitechapel best falls into the so-bad-that-it's-good category of television. Right from the opening titles it seems to think that it's Se7en, employing edgy music and consistently annoying jump cuts and quick editing to segue between scenes that serve no dramatic purpose whatsoever other than to waken viewers who've already nodded off. Then there's the over-familiar cliché of the rookie cop paired with the old hand and their clash of methods; we've seen it all before far too many times already. What's best/worst are the huge gaping plot holes and the sloppy writing: the kidney in the mail that starts dripping blood the moment it gets picked up by Marsh, and best of all, the break-in to Buchan's basement where we find that - ever so conveniently - the PC is switched on and still logged in to Buchan's very own website! What are the chances? Yet for all its flaws - and there are many - the presence of a stalwart cast kept me watching and even though I knew it was crap television, there was a likeable charm about the whole production.

It's a busy schedule for fans of established shows right now with the likes of 24, Lost, Heroes all in the middle of their latest series. One popular show reaching its climax in the few weeks is Battlestar Galactica (SKY 1) after four highly successful and critically acclaimed seasons - although a spin-off prequel series Caprica is set to broadcast in 2010. And so as we count down the final few episodes it's all kicking off aboard Galactica: Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) has come to an uneasy alliance with the Cylons and is now facing up to the increasing possibility of having to abandon his dying ship; the final Cylon has been revealed as Tigh's wife Ellen (Kate Vernon) in a particularly nailbiting episode whilst the other 'Final Five' members have been crowding around the injured Sam Anders who has been remembering events from ancient Earth.

One big question remains - what role does Kara Thrace (Katee Sackoff) have to play in all of this? My tip for the final Cylon, we now know that she was killed when her Viper crash-landed on Earth, but if she's not a Cylon then how come she's been resurrected? Baltar thinks she's living proof of eternal life after preaching to the masses that angels live amongst us. And what about her relationship with young Hera, the sole human/Cylon child? With renegade Cylon John (Dean Stockwell) instructing Boomer (Grace Park) to orchestrate a devious plan to kidnap Hera, it seems certain that the young girl is key to the remaining mysteries. Battlestar Galactica has its occasional weak moments but for the most part remains coherent and focused on its end game - something several other long-winded shows could do well to learn from. A truly great piece of science fiction that's unafraid to reflect many contemporary issues here on Earth, Battlestar Galactica will be missed.

Leaving drama to one side now and moving onto comedy I want to point you all towards Moving Wallpaper (ITV 1). A behind-the-scenes satire about writing and producing television drama, the first series focused on the making of Echo Beach, a British soap set in a surfing town - which ITV actually made to broadcast in tandem with its fictional counterpart. Echo Beach duly tanked, so ITV wisely cut their losses but Moving Wallpaper was a modest success, so returns as a stand alone comedy drama series with wily producer Jonathan Pope (Ben Miller) and his team of writers desperately trying to commission a new show to work on.

Happily, and more pertinently for FrightFesters, salvation arrives in the form of Renaissance - a pitch that appears to mix Survivors with Dead Set as a group of people band together to fight off a plague of zombies now roaming the UK. With Alan Dale (Lost and just about every other high profile American series on TV since he finished with Neighbours) and Kelly Brook playing cast members there's a lot of fun to be had watching this fictional series take shape, although sadly this time no actual Renaissance episode to watch after Moving Wallpaper has aired. Perhaps not as sharp as the American shows that it aspires to, it nevertheless delivers plenty of laughs over each thirty minute episode thanks to Ben Miller's energetic portrayal of the incompetent and immoral producer. Genre fans will also appreciate the script meetings with the writers discussing the different types of zombies (dead or just infected?) and trying to convince Jonathan that you can't have a zombie leader who talks!

Also worth a watch and getting better with every episode is FM (ITV 2) a new comedy series set around a fictional indie-rock radio station. Chris O'Dowd (The IT Crowd) and Kevin Bishop (Star Stories) play an inept pair of DJs and - in a nod to The Young Ones - each episode has a minor league indie band coming to the studio to perform on their radio show. This week's episode revolving around Ladyhawke, a stolen laptop and Bishop's deaf girlfriend was simply spot on. Less rewarding however is Horne & Corden (BBC Three) a mixture of studio based hijinks and pre-recorded sketches from the Gavin And Stacey pair. It's not quite as unwatchable as their turn at the recent Amnesty International benefit concert suggested, but it's not terribly good either. Don't let this put you off their roles in Lesbian Vampire Killers though – if you missed the 'surprise' screening at the FrightFest Spring Awakening event then rest assured that the boys are on top form in Phil Claydon's comedy/horror which opens nationwide on March 20th.

Until next time,

Keep watching.

Back to
Blog Central