The first recording today is the next episode of Primeval, Episode 2 of series 2. It opens with Helen Cutter in the prehistoric past, trying to steal some dinosaur eggs and fighting off a pterodactyl.
Back in the present, Nick Cutter is rather freaking out that his new colleague Jenny is actually the doppelganger of the now non-existent Claudia Brown.
In a skyscraper housing a marketing company, an anomaly opens up, starts spreading a noxious gas around the building, and hiding something that attacks a maintenance worker.
The marketing company are continuing to pitch to a Japanese client despite the fire alarm, and the gas which is creeping through the building.
When their boss goes to see what’s happening, he gets attacked too.
Connor is picked up by a random woman in the video shop. My alarm bells are going off. I bet she’s a spy, or a dinosaur in disguise.
Talking of being picked up by random women, Stephen discovers Helen in his flat, injured after her fight with the pterodactyl. (Look, I know it wasn’t actually a pterodactyl, but since I was seven years old, all flying dinosaurs have been pterodactyls and I’m too old to change.)
The team are called to the skyscraper, and encounter a huge worm-like creature.
Back at the ARC, Connor and Abby are looking for something that will clear the fog. Connor spots a familiar face. He looks like the cleaner that got attacked in the first episode. He’s even got scars on his neck, but alll he says is he works at the ARC.
Stephen gets separated from Cutter, and has a close encounter with one of the worms.
He manages to get into a lift, but it’s lacking something.
Jenny wants to know what’s happening. Cutter tells her to walk to the 12th floor, but she ignores him and takes the lift, almost squashing Stephen in the process. She gets menaced by the worms, and Cutter has to save her, then he gets attacked, and she saves him with the samurai sword he was using (courtesy of the advertising company).
Stephen is still trying to evade the worms.
As they go down the stairs, Connor gets grabbed. Cutter has to slice the worm in half.
Connor and Abby need to reach the server room, so they go crawling around airducts. Well who wouldn’t take the opportunity to do a Die Hard?
Cutter and Jenny are looking for Stephen. “Cutter, you’re the team leader. We can’t afford to lose you. Now, the most sensible thing would be to let Steven fend for himself.” Cutter considers this. “Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. Now, are you coming? or are you gonna stay down here and be sensible.”
Stephen is making use of his environment, using a photocopier to kill the worms.
Abby does Kung Fu on a worm.
The fog starts lifting and the worms start dying. But then they explode and lots of little worms start trying to bite them. Cutter starts the sprinklers to take care of them.
Crisis over, Abby and Connor are back at her house. Caroline appears. “The door was open.” She had left her phone there. I bet she was recording them. Connor asks her out for a drink.
Cutter knocks on Jenny’s door, apologises to her for all the angst. “Suppose there was another world once, and you were a different person. And suppose there was an accident that happened in the past, which, you know, meant that world evolved differently. So that some people who had lived were never even born, and other people grew up with completely different lives. Now, what if all that were possible?” But then Jenny’s husband comes out to see what’s happening. Cutter apologises and leaves.
As he leaves, we see that Helen’s watching him.
Media Centre Description: Cutter and the team are joined by Jenny Lewis, a sharp, cynical PR guru who is also the spitting image of Claudia Brown. But she is horrified when she is given a taste of her new job, as the team visits an office block where a mysterious, foul-smelling mist is harbouring some giant carnivorous creatures.
Recorded from ITV1 on Saturday 19th January 2008 19:00
After this, the recording stops after the start of the new Nick Hancock-helmed game show Duel. Sadly there’s not enough of it to get any idea what the game is about. The trailers don’t look great, as they all end with a strange shot of Nick Hancock just wandering about looking confused. It’s so odd.
The other recording today is a bit of a disappointment. It’s Red Dragon, the adaptation of Thomas Harris’s first Hannibal Lecter novel, first filmed by Michael Mann as Manhunter, this time in the less capable hands of Brett Ratner. But I obviously cocked up my recording, as this is only the first hour of the movie, which then breaks for the news, and I don’t have the end of the film. Still, I remember watching it and thinking I’d rather have watched Manhunter again. I’m sure it was mostly Lecter’s ponytail, surely the worst crime he ever perpetrated?
Media Centre Description: Thriller adapted from Thomas Harris’s first Hannibal Lecter novel about an FBI profiler called out of retirement to help catch a serial killer nicknamed the Tooth Fairy. The agent has the uncanny ability to project himself into the minds of his criminal prey, but the case forces him to confront his past and consult his former nemesis – the now-incarcerated Dr Hannibal Lecter.
Recorded from ITV1 on Saturday 19th January 2008 22:00
After this, there’s the start of the News, leading with yet another suspect in the Maddy McCann case.
Here’s the Primeval ad breaks.
Here’s the Red Dragon breaks minus a Supernatural trail that was blocked because it had AC/DC on the soundtrack.
Adverts:
- Frosties
- British Gas
- trail: Duel – Nick Hancock
- VW Tiguan
- First Direct – Matt King
- Pizza Hut
- Vaseline
- Ryvita Minis – Fern Britton
- Royal Caribbean Cruises
- Harrods Sale
- Carling
- Argos
- trail: The Palace
- Cravendale
- Mint
- Scottish Widows
- Mazda 6
- BT Total Broadband – Kris Marshall
- Sunday Express
- Rice Krispies Squares
- Walk Hard The Dewey Cox Story in cinemas
- trail: Thank God You’re Here
- Fiat Grande Punto
- Halifax
- California
- Dreams
- DVLA Car Tax Rules
- 118 118
- Calprofen
- KFC
- trail: Duel – Nick Hancock
- itv.com/primeval
- trail: Wild At Heart
- trail: Dancing on Ice
- O2
- First Choice Holidays
- Fair & Square
- trail: Trial & Retribution
- trail: The Palace
- trail: Honest
- trail: Supernatural
- trail: Trial & Retribution
- trail: Kingdom
- trail: Wild at Heart
- P&O Cruises
- Carling
- Walk Hard The Dewey Cox Story in cinemas
- Land of Leather
- Rich for Life National Lottery
- Mail on Sunday
- Peugeot 308
- Kellogg’s Multi-grain Corn Flakes