It may have been quietly swept under the rug and unceremoniously axed by a new look BBC 1 drama department earlier this year (who blamed poor ratings for the decision, when it was actually their own (deliberate?) poor scheduling which was really the order of the day!), but fans old and new of the re-imagination of Terry Nation's hit mid-seventies apocalyptic virus drama, SURVIVORS, will get a chance to see a daily re-run of the series this week, if very late night, on BBC HD.
Overall, the first series, and its running main plot arc, is pretty good, with its extended length opening (featuring guest star appearances from DOCTOR WHOs Freema Agyeman and Shaun Parkes), second episode and last two parts being very enjoyable, with some updated ideas and concepts added to it that I think the late Terry Nation (creator of DOCTOR WHO's fearsome Daleks back in 1963) would have been happy with (this new version apparently being adapted from his one-off book rather than the TV series). It does sag a little in the middle, however, and, in its first run, its not quite as gritty as the 1975 series, either (which remains my favourite). As the critics observed of the new SURVIVORS in its original transmission, everyone also looks far too clean and comfortable after such terrible events. Fortunately, to their credit, the shows producers had already cottoned onto these criticisms and that situation changed by the time of the darker, and more violent, year two (accompanied with a further move later on, in which one of the main leads is killed in tragic circumstances, that improves the series no end).
Series One re-cap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYS54Ydtfao
Of the main cast, the best of the bunch is Max Beesley as the tough, no-nonsense ex-prison convict Tom Price, whilst Julie Graham, whom I'm not normally very fond of, is okay as the series principal female lead, Abby Grant, desperately searching (as her predecessor in the original, Carolyn Seymour, did back in 1975) for her missing son, Peter. The others in the bunch are a bit drippy, with one of the most disappointingly realised re-imagined characters being Greg Preston, as played by the likable Paterson Joseph, who comes across in season one as a bit of a humanist twit in the face of all the anarchy going on around them, what with the surviving human fractions all at each others throats to survive, whilst the original version of the character, as played by Ian McCulloch (who himself tried to get a modern version of Nation's concept off the ground with BBC SCOTLAND unsuccessfully a few years prior) was a braver, more direct and realist character.
If you haven't seen this first season of the new SURVIVORS, originally shown in the run-up to Xmas on BBC 1 in 2007 to strong audience success, this is well worth a look (especially if you're not aware of the original version of the series) and one of the better, mostly well thought out and realised dramas of that year. Its just a shame that the BBC bottled out on what could have been a quite compelling, full of dramatic incident, wrap up third season-I suppose the money had to come from somewhere to pay Jonathan Ross's exorbatant presenting salary at the time!
Both the original and new versions of THE SURVIVORS are now available on DVD from 2ENTERTAIN.
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