Details about Charlie Brooker's E4 comedy Dead Set have been released. The six-part series (which opens with a double-bill 60-minute episode) will revolve around a Big Brother-style reality show, where the housemates are unaware the outside world is being taken over by zombies and they're living in one of the few "safe houses".
Sounds like fun, although I'm sure I've heard this premise before. It sounds like the kind of "what if?" conversation you'd have down the pub. Brooker himself may have mentioned something similar in one of his columns, actually. I've definitely heard the idea of an apocalypse striking during Big Brother before. Oh well, you can't hold that against it. Dead Set sounds like fun. I'm betting E4 will save themselves a fortune and film inside the real Big Brother house, too.
I'm also interested to see how the idea is tackled by Brooker. Obviously, focusing on the experience of the fictional housemates won't be any fun (no zombies). So I'm guessing it'll be focused on the real world dealing with a zombie plague, with the population taking solace that a group of TV "celebs" have no idea the world's turned to shit.
Maybe the public will decide not to evict anyone, because the show keeps a bit of normality in their lives? Or maybe those who are evicted will be immediately eaten by zombies, instead of get their post-eviction interview and photoshoot for Heat magazine. If that's anywhere near the truth, can we get Big Brother's Nicole involved somehow?
