Dead Set

The opening to Charlie Brooker's satirical Channel 4 mini-series Dead Set sums up his misanthropic view of Britain with fresh and clinical precision. Joplin, the social outcast is talking to the youthful and naive Pippa in the Big Brother house. As Joplin speaks these profound words of wisdom about the nature of television, Pippa paints her toenails:-


'What is TV anyway? It's just a big fat arrow pointing away from the problem. Especially shows like this. It's like the lead in the water pipes that sent the Romans mad. I thought to myself OK, I can ignore it, or I can engage with and alter it from within. You know, and if just one person hears me and thinks, wow I never saw it like that. This guy's really opened my head then I've justified doing it. You know?'


Pippa is oblivious to Joplin's visionary words, lost in her own little bubble she looks up from her feet and replies, 'Do toes have bones in them?' It seems that Joplin's words fall on ignorant ears. This is Charlie Brooker's line of attack, channelling his thoughts and feelings through metaphorical characters like Joplin. Throwing us into the lions and asking us imperative questions about our society. It's just a shame that nobody is listening to him or Joplin as million of people watch the carnage.


At heart, Brooker is a cultural anthropologist. He observes the nuances of our culture like those lions observe raw meat. Dead Set is his sly dig at the stupidity of it all. Set in the Big Brother house with an impending zombie attack, Brooker pounces onto his audience and ruffles them into submission. By expressing his proverbial downbeat tone through the use of mindless reanimated corpses Brooker captures the heart of British culture like Romero captured the essence of 70s America with Dawn of the Dead. Watch as the undead slash the hell out of our TV induced eyes with their dull fingernails, rip open the valves of our thumping heart with their jagged teeth, chomp on our brains with their mouldy gums and eat our s***-filled bowels with a smile on their face. This is Charlie Brooker's vision of hell and he's having the time of his f***ing life.


Dead Set is British telly at its post-apocalyptic best. Harking back to the glory days of thought-provoking and visceral sci-fi like the 1981 BBC adaptation of Day of the Triffids and ITV's own 1999 dystopia fuelled vision The Last Train. Imagine that you're standing on a deserted platform waiting for a train when you see the computer screens flash 'No Information Available'. Imagine being chased through deserted streets by flesh eating ghouls who want to munch on your fingers. Imagine watching scenes of civil unrest on Sky News as something smashes through your window. There's a sense of immediacy to Charlie Brooker's end-of-the-world vision. Even though Dead Set adopts the British sensibility of films like Shaun of the Dead, this world doesn't contain the overt self-conscious zombie humour of Simon Pegg - it's a fully-blown Night of the Living Dead siege, filled with carnage in all its satirical and blood-spattered glory.


Like all zombie inspired stories, you begin to ask yourself what the hell would I do in a situation like this. What would I do if I were stuck in the Big Brother house with ego driven eccentrics? How will I survive a zombie apocalypse on my own? Real world concerns like these are laced throughout this dark brooding vision. By setting events in the real everyday world of Big Brother, the experience of a zombie attack is more urgent, it's not fantasy based and derived through slapstick humour like Shaun of the Dead (which is not a criticism). This is why Romero's visions of a zombie apocalypse are so stark, they are relentless visions dragged from the entrails of a nightmare and placed on our doorstep. Dead Set is filled to the brim with zombie mythology (except the running zombie thing of course). It focuses on Romero's lack of communication vibe through the self-absorbed Big Brother characters. As one of them observes the carnage on the roof of the house she remarks, 'Does this mean were not on telly anymore?'


The chalk and cheese characters who inhabit the world of Dead Set create a tornado of conflict; it's what makes watching this programme such a unique experience, everyone has a different personality. Who can I trust in this godforsaken world? The producer of the Big Brother show Patrick (Andy Nyman) is a megalomaniac. Brooker uses him as an alter ego, sculpturing his narcissistic madness into a frantic surrealist vision. The scene in which Patrick is trapped in a room with Pippa, as Davina 'zombie' McCall hammers on the door, is pure comedic genius. Have you ever seen anything on prime time TV where a guy has to take a s*** in a bin? It's pure Gonzo. Patrick also has some of the best lines - 'are you on a personal quest to redefine ineptitude?' The other characters that shine in this series are Riq (Riz Ahmed). We can relate to his plight of trying to get to his girlfriend Kelly (Jamie Winstone) because we want to rescue her too. Also, what viewer can forget Kevin Eldon (who plays the socially awkward Joblin). Having appeared in such classic comedy shows as Nighty Night, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam he has cemented himself as a comedy cult legend in Britian.


Like all socially aware zombie stories you have to retain your humanity to survive this onslaught. It looks like Brooker doesn't have much faith for the human race in his bleak ominous vision of hell on earth. The ending of Dead Set is so miserable it mirrors the final scene of Romero's Night of the Living Dead. We are stuck in the swamp of our own capitalist culture like in Dawn of the Dead. We are trapped in a claustrophobic cave like in Day of the Dead.

What makes this program extra special amongst the miasma of zombiedom is Brooker has a social conscious. It seems that television is our only god and it has forsaken us. Brooker doesn't give a dam that he throws a proverbial pie in our face and runs away in maniacal laughter. He enjoys his sadistic madness. It looks like the Romans weren't  the only ones who had lead in their water pipes…


Verdict: You have to give Brooker his due, what a fresh and frantic idea to create a zombie outbreak on our doorsteps and to wrap it around a popular reality TV show like Big Brother. It's pure genius. Brooker has moulded a dystopian vision of Britain in the mists of a zombie nightmare. The camera moves around with frantic 28 Days Later terror. Along with the schizophrenic editing, Dead Set is a visual panic-attack.  It's a traumatic experience. This guy has his teeth firmly imbedded in our culture, like a zombie tearing us a new arsehole. He may be a sarcastic scrotum faced loser but he verges on the edge of satirical brilliance.


Disc: You have an option of watching the episodes individually as a five part zombie series or if you click 'play all' button, you can watch it as a feature length zombie film.

Special Features

Interesting material here, nothing substantial though. It's like being given a packet of bourbon biscuits but your not able to eat the creamy insides because someone yanks the packet out of your hand and  stamps on it.

Davina McKill (7min)

Davina discusses her part - playing a flesh-eating zombie! It's refreshing to see her outside of her Big Brother persona, she appears normal and not the media cyborg that were used to seeing on our TV screens.


SFX: You've Got To Get Them In The Head (3min)

Mathew Smith discusses his special effects make-up work. It's great to see someone hit in the head with a fake fire extinguisher. Can I have a go?


Interview With Yann Demange (4min)

The director talks about the creation of Dead Set and how the crew brought Charlie Brooker's vision to life. Or should that be death?

On Set With Dead Set (6min)

Interview with the main cast. Warren Brown, who plays Marky sums up the film with poetic delight 'I like it that its erm, you know, by the end everyone's f***ED,  housemates f***ED, everyone outside watching the programme f***ED. I do like that, the fact that there is no hope, it's quite a nice sort of statement on today's TV watching society innit?' Couldn't sum it up better myself.

Interview With Charlie Brooker (6min)

The man behind the ideas talks about the inspiration, referring to George Romero's cannon of zombie films and how he wanted to mould an undead vision into the world of Big Brother. There's a nice little Brookeresque quote in the featurette, 'I hope kids stay up late and watch this and come away traumatised then f***ing kill each other in 15-years time'. Nice.

SFX: Head Shots (2min)

Interview with John Street, the stunt performer. You get to see a dummy head explode in full gore-sodden detail, chunks and all. Lovely.


House Of The Dead (5min)

What a great way to be introduced to a tour of the Big Brother inspired house with Charlie Brooker saying, 'hello viewer, you prick'. Interesting the amount of work that went into creating this fake environment. They could have made this featurette more substantial by turning it into an MTV style Cribs show with all that speeded up footage and stuff.


SFX Davina (1min)

Do you wanna to see a metal pole in the back of Davina McCall's prosthetic head?

I Am Patrick, Hear Me Roar (4min)

Funny interview with actor Andy Nyman who plays Patrick. This guy is hilarious - 'I think Patrick is the hero of the piece. He's certainly the sexual heart, that's for sure'. With that low cut shirt I can see why…


Army Of The Dead (4min)

Volunteer zombie hordes walk around covered in blood and guts - not that interesting.

SFX: Patrick Gives Head (4min)

Andy Nyman (Patrick) should have his own TV show. Funny footage of the special effects team making his prosthetic head and making his fake body ready for it to be ripped apart (which is a sneaky homage to Romero's Day of the Dead 'choke on em' scene).

Deleted/Extended Scenes (8min)

Disappointing array of footage that wasn't used in the series. There had to be more than this token gesture of deleted scenes, surely? All we get is a short clip from 8 Out Of 10 Cats with that Jimmy Carr bloke that was going to be used as background footage on the televisions, an extended scene of Pippa's eviction, more dialogue from the chopping up body scene with Patrick and an extended scene of Rick arriving in the Big Brother house. Where's the rest of the deleted scenes you putrid corpses?