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Dead Set (TV series)
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Dead Set is a five-part horror thriller created by English comic writer Charlie Brooker. The series is set in the Big Brother house, and was first aired on E4 on 27 October 2008. The five episodes, aired over five consecutive nights, chronicle a zombie outbreak that strands the housemates and production staff inside the House, which quickly becomes a shelter from the undead.
Advertisements for the show were aired on Channel 4 and E4.
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Encyclopedia
Dead Set is a five-part horror thriller created by English comic writer Charlie Brooker. The series is set in the Big Brother house, and was first aired on E4 on 27 October 2008. The five episodes, aired over five consecutive nights, chronicle a zombie outbreak that strands the housemates and production staff inside the House, which quickly becomes a shelter from the undead.
Advertisements for the show were aired on Channel 4 and E4. The first episode, at its peak, received just under one and a half million viewers and 8.3% total audience share.
The series was repeated on Channel 4 from the 6th to the 8th of January 2009, reformatted into three hour-long episodes.
Production details
Although the real Big Brother House is in Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, the house featured in Dead Set is a purpose built set on a former Military base in Virginia Water, Surrey, owned by QinetiQ. This site has also housed other productions including Holby Blue, Primeval and Echo Beach. Filming for the series took place over Summer 2008. Pippa's eviction was filmed outside the real Big Brother house during Belinda's eviction - in front of a real Friday night eviction audience - leading to a small continuity error as the Big Brother series nine logo was visible instead of the fictional version.
According to the DVD, scenes featuring the zombified Davina McCall were filmed in one day, and the bodies laying around the corridor during the scene were created with SFX dummies (besides Eugene Sully's, which Davina is seen feasting on). McCall stated that she was covered in bruises the next day, due to hammering on the door in several scenes. She based her zombie-running style on the T-1000 from the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgement Day. As she was restricted to only one day's filming, a dummy of McCall was used in some scenes which she was unavailable to film.
Filming of the series was found to be difficult, due to budgetary constraints. Some extras were redressed to play different zombies due to the cost of the contact lenses used as zombie eyes; and the scene in Episode 2 in which Alex and Riq's car breaks down was originally meant to be an explosive car crash.
Cast
Big Brother narrator
Cameos by former Big Brother housemates
Website and DVD release
The website was launched on 17 September 2008. The website contains pictures, videos and competitions relating to the show. There is also a viral marketing site called UnseenScreen.com.
The entire series was released on a one disc DVD on 3 November, 2008. The running time for the DVD is 138 minutes. The DVD also contained a selection of deleted and extended scenes, including Pippa's eviction in full (featuring scenes shot from inside the actual Big Brother house staircase), a segment from a fictional episode of 8 Out Of 10 Cats, and Pippa's death in the final episode at the hands of her zombified mother.
Episode list
All viewer ratings are official from BARB.
| Episode | Original air date | Guest stars | Ratings |
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| 1.01 | 27 October 2008 | Marcus Bentley, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Davina McCall, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Brian Belo, Imogen Thomas, Helen Adams, Paul "Bubble" Ferguson, Kinga Karolczak, Eugene Sully, Makosi Musambasi, Ziggy Lichman | 1.465m | During eviction night on Big Brother, there are reports of disturbances and riots all over the country and the live show may have to be cancelled. Producer Patrick and his assistant Claire try to maintain control; the housemates continue to bicker and clash; former Big Brother contestants participate in a reunion party held in the studio's green room; and Kelly, a runner on the show, who has had an affair with her co-worker Danny, avoids calls from her long-term boyfriend, Riq, who is stranded at a train station after a desperate family with an injured child flag him down and steal his van. At the same time, another runner, Sophie, nominated housemate Pippa's mother and their driver travel to the studios through a deserted road, due to the fact all of the main ones have been blocked off. During their journey, they encounter a crashed car, and when the driver investigates, he is attacked by a zombie, although he manages to escape back into his own car. Sophie takes over, and frantically drives to the studios, until the driver dies and reanimates, killing and turning both her and Pippa's mother. A security guard notices the car and approaches them, but is also attacked.
Pippa is revealed as the next evictee. When she leaves the house, all hell breaks loose as the wounded security guard stumbles into the oblivious eviction crowd, dies, turns into a zombie and begins to infect others. Eventually, the zombies invade the studio's interiors, where a post-eviction interview between Davina McCall and Pippa is taking place, and massacre the crew, Davina and the former Big Brother contestants, while the current housemates, Marky, Veronica, Grayson, Joplin, Angel and Space continue to party, oblivious to the chaos outside. Meanwhile, Kelly, who has been sheltered in an office and is unaware of the attack, argues with Chloe, a jealous co-worker who also has an attraction to Danny. They soon encounter him as a zombie, however, and although Kelly manages to escape unscathed and barricade herself in another office next door, Chloe is attacked and devoured by him. Patrick hides in a toilet cubicle, after sacrificing Claire and a disabled man to zombies, in order to save himself.
In the morning, the housemates are left confused by the cameras ceasing to work and start bickering; Kelly manages to kill Danny, but is soon chased outside the studio by another zombie. She manages to lock it from the inside, however, and attempts to escape in a nearby van, but as soon as she acquires the keys, she is chased by more zombies and forced back inside the other end of the studio, where the Big Brother house is located; Patrick escapes the cubicle only to encounter a now-zombified Davina feasting on Eugene Sully, who promptly chases him into the green room, where Pippa is also hiding.
Kelly goes into the camera run around the house, encounters a zombie cameraman, and manages to escape into the diary room. She goes into the house, covered in blood and brandishing a pair of scissors; the housemates initially believe that she is a new contestant and start making fun of her and her claims that they should be quiet because "one of them" is behind the two-way mirrors. Marky opens a door to the camera runs to taunt her, even though she threatens to stab him. The zombie cameraman bursts into the house, attacks him and bites Angel before Kelly smashes its head in with a fire extinguisher. | | | | 1.02 | 28 October 2008 | Davina McCall | 1.038m | After an encounter with a zombie, Riq hides out in a petrol station where he is rescued by another survivor named Alex; with a gun she forces him to gather supplies and they set off in her car in search of the coast. The car eventually breaks down, although Riq attempts to repair it. Alex guards the vehicle and keeps watch, occasionally shooting approaching zombies. As night falls, Alex argues with Riq about how he has not experienced any significant obstacles in order to survive; while she had to endure the enormous hardship of killing her zombified best friend. The sound attracts masses of zombies, and they escape on foot to a nearby abandoned country house, where they manage to climb the locked gate before the zombies catch them.
Patrick and Pippa are stuck in the green room with no means of communication with the outside world, with each others' company becoming increasingly irritating to both of them. Zombie Davina continues to prowl the corridor outside, making occasional violent attempts to get in.
The housemates decide to move Angel to the greenhouse in the garden so that she is contained if she becomes a zombie, but her condition is rapidly deteriorating and Grayson, who is a nurse, explains that he needs proper medical supplies if he is to stand any chance of saving her life. Kelly, Marky and Space agree to leave the safety of the house and use the van outside to travel through the zombies to fetch supplies from the nearby supermarket. Veronica and Joplin stand on the balcony hitting saucepans and tins to attract the zombies' attention, buying the others time to get to the van. However, a zombified Claire notices them and begins chase, with other zombies following suit soon after. However, the 3 manage to get into the van in time, although Marky injures his arm on a tool in the back of the van. | | | | 1.03 | 29 October 2008 | Davina McCall | 842,000 | Kelly, Marky and Space make it to the supermarket. While Kelly and Marky gather supplies, Space waits outside and encounters two armed policemen, who threaten to shoot him as a looter. Meanwhile, Kelly and Marky are chased out of the supermarket by two zombies; the police shoot the zombies, but one of them gets bitten, and his colleague shoots him. He tells the others that those bitten die and turn quickly into zombies. Spotting the wound on Marky's arm and thinking it is a bite, the policeman goes to shoot him too; unable to reason with him, Kelly picks up the other policeman's gun and shoots him in the leg. More zombies appear, and Kelly, Marky and Space escape in the van, leaving the wounded policeman to the zombies.
In the greenhouse Grayson tries to comfort Angel, but when she stops breathing Grayson realises he needs to kill her in case she turns into a zombie, but he hesitates and is attacked by the now zombified Angel. Veronica hears Grayson's screams and runs with Joplin to the garden. Grayson stumbles out of the greenhouse clutching his neck, and Angel chases after Veronica as Joplin hesitates, locking the doors, watching as Angel tries to bite Veronica. Grayson, while fatally wounded, pushes Angel into the pool. He dies shortly after, and becomes a zombie. Veronica and Joplin run into the house and close the door. Veronica then tells Joplin that they need to kill Grayson, otherwise Kelly, Marky and Space will run into him later.
Joplin and Veronica trap Grayson with a bed cover and Veronica stabs him in the head just as Kelly, Marky and Space arrive. Seeing that Angel is unable to get out of the pool, they come to the conclusion that zombies have little intelligence, and Kelly shoots her in the head.
At the country house, Riq turns on the television, and discovers the Big Brother live feed is still broadcasting on E4. Alex hears a French radio broadcast and determines that a rescue boat has just left, stranding them and any other survivors. Suddenly, just as hope is beginning to fade, Riq is relieved to see Kelly and the others on screen. | | | | 1.04 | 30 October 2008 | Davina McCall, Brian Belo, Saskia Howard-Clarke | 907,000 | Riq decides he must get to Kelly, and convinces Alex to leave the safety of the country house and make their way to the studio by boat along the river. Alex is attacked by one of the zombies while opening a lock gate and is bitten. Knowing that she will turn, Alex hands Riq the axe she used to kill the zombie, and he kills her with it.
Patrick and Pippa manage to kill zombie Davina and make it to the studio control room. Using the "voice of god" PA System Patrick communicates with Kelly and the housemates, who are having dinner. The housemates think they are being rescued but Kelly recognises Patrick's voice. Kelly and Space set off to rescue Patrick and Pippa, encountering and killing a zombified Brian Belo on the way.
Patrick wants to head for the coast, but on the way back to the house Kelly shows him the growing crowd of zombies at the gates preventing them from leaving the compound. Patrick suggests that they use Grayson's body as bait to distract the zombies away from the gates while they escape in the van. The remaining housemates sit inside the house in disgust as Patrick hacks up the body.
Riq makes it to the studio and approaches the Big Brother house. Marky is back on the roof, picking off the zombies inside the compound with the policeman's assault rifle. Marky spots Riq and, thinking he is a zombie, aims at Riq and pulls the trigger. | | | | 1.05 | 31 October 2008 | Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Saskia Howard-Clarke | 705,000 | After several missed shots, Kelly recognises Riq and stops Marky shooting at him. Riq makes it into the house and they embrace, finally reunited. Patrick is the only one to not share in their joy, still preparing Grayson's body to use as bait. However, the housemates object to Patrick's escape plan, opting instead to stay inside the house as long as possible. When Patrick still won't listen, despite Riq's warnings, they tie him up.
Veronica tries to persuade the housemates they need to kill Patrick in order to save themselves, but he manages to turn Joplin against the others, by explaining the nationwide dislike for him. After Joplin unties him, Patrick takes Kelly hostage and the housemates follow him outside. Riq fights to save Kelly, but in the struggle the bait is dropped and Patrick shoots Riq, killing him. Pippa, hysterical, runs back to the studio's offices, and Space follows. Joplin panics, drives the van to the gates, gets out and opens them; the zombies flood in, attacking Joplin before he can get back inside the van.
Kelly, Marky, Veronica and Patrick run for the house, but the zombies catch up and rip Patrick apart before he can get in. The others watch in horror as the garden fills with zombies. Space, unable to find Pippa, makes it to the control room and communicates with the house using the "voice of god". Kelly tells him to close the automated shutters before the zombies smash through the patio doors, which he manages, however they quickly storm through the camera runs. Realising they will easily make it through the two-way glass, Kelly urges Space to open the diary room door, but a zombified Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace gets into the control room and bites him.
As more zombies run in, he manages to make it into the control booth, and opens the diary room, but by this time the zombies have forced their way into the house. Only Kelly makes it into the safety of the diary room, leaving Marky and Veronica to be eaten alive. Space communicates with Kelly in the diary room and she jokingly congratulates him on winning this series of Big Brother, before telling him to open the outside door. At first he denies her request, but when he sees that Pippa is one of the zombies trying to get into the booth, he loses hope, and obliges. He wishes her luck; but as soon as the door is opened, she screams and the camera cuts to black.
Joplin, Kelly, Marky, Space and Veronica are then shown to have also turned into zombies; Joplin roams outside the studio gates with many others, eating the skin of a corpse; Marky and Veronica feast on the remains of Grayson; Space stares blankly around the control room and Kelly gazes into a camera. A zombie in a shopping centre watches her on the Big Brother live feed, on a television in a shop window. The final shot is the world outside, the sun setting behind two security cameras. |
Series Omnibus: 257,000 (213,000 viewers on E4, 54,000 on E4+1.
Series Average: 844,166 (664,833 on E4, 179,333 on E4+1).
Cultural References
Dead Set contains several allusions to other zombie films, most notably George A. Romero's "Living Dead" series. Marky taunts Grayson by calling him 'Barbara', one of the central characters in Night of the Living Dead (1968). When Kelly takes refuge in the Big Brother house and informs the contestants of the zombie infestation, Marky directly quotes the line "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" that opened Romero's film. Later, as Marky and Veronica are clearing zombies from the compound, Joplin remarks that they keep converging on the house because of "some primitive instinct [...] This was like a temple for them," paraphrasing a line from Dawn of the Dead (1978).
Patrick's fate at the hands of the undead is an homage to the death of Captain Rhodes at the end of Day of the Dead (1985), even down to his last words. As Rhodes is torn in half he commands the zombies eating his intestinal tract to "Choke on 'em!"; in Dead Set, Patrick's mortal words are "I've got fucking bowels full of shit - eat it!" In the first episode, Patrick says that Angel has a face "like a Manchester Morgue", a sly reference to Jorge Grau's The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974).
Reception
Simon Pegg, a co-writer and star of the zombie comedy film Shaun of the Dead, commented on Dead Set for The Guardian. While generally praising the series, he expressed dismay at the move away from the traditional slow zombies of the Romero films to the modern 'fast zombie' used in Dead Set which were akin to the infected from 28 Days Later or the zombies from the 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake. Brooker responded that this was due to a variety of reasons, including the fact that Dead Set had to differentiate itself from Shaun of the Dead, as well as the plot requiring that the infection could put the entire country out of action before the producers had time to evacuate the studios. He also cited two George Romero films in which the zombies behaved non-traditionally, including a scene where two undead children run.
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