7.8 /10 1 Votes7.8
77% Metacritic First episode date 27 October 2008 | 7.8/10 IMDb Genre HorrorBlack comedy Country of origin United Kingdom Final episode date 31 October 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Jaime WinstoneAndy NymanKevin EldonAdam DeaconDavina McCallWarren BrownRiz AhmedBeth CordinglyKathleen McDermott Cast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dead Set is a critically acclaimed BAFTA-nominated British television horror series created by Charlie Brooker. The show takes place primarily on the set of a fictional series of the real television show Big Brother. The five episodes, aired over five consecutive nights, chronicle a zombie outbreak that strands the housemates and production staff inside the Big Brother House, which quickly becomes a shelter from the undead.
Contents
- Dead set trailer 2008
- Cast
- Cameos by former Big Brother housemates
- Production
- UK broadcasts
- International broadcasts
- Home media
- Reception
- References
Dead Set is a production of Zeppotron, part of the Endemol group of production and distribution companies that produces the actual Big Brother. The series first aired on E4 starting on 27 October 2008, just six weeks after the end of Big Brother 2008 on that same channel.
Dead set trailer 2008
Cast
Cameos by former Big Brother housemates
Production
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 the summer of 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 9 logo was visible instead of the fictional version.
According to the DVD release, scenes featuring the undead Davina McCall were filmed in one day, and the bodies lying around the corridor during the scene were created with SFX dummies (besides Eugene Sully's, which McCall 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: Judgment Day. As she was restricted to only one day's filming, a dummy of McCall was used in some scenes for which she was unavailable.
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. Many of the zombies featured in the crowd scenes - including the final assault on the house - were volunteers recruited through Dead Set creator Charlie Brooker's Facebook group.
A map for the Borehamwood region, the site of the real Big Brother House, was added to the Urban Dead MMORPG - with a competition to win a copy of the DVD as part of the promotion of the series.
UK broadcasts
A website for Dead Set was launched on 17 September 2008, containing pictures, videos and competitions relating to the show. There also was a viral marketing site at UnseenScreen.com. Advertisements for the show were aired on E4 and its parent, Channel 4. The series launched on E4 on 27 October 2008
Dead Set was repeated on Channel 4 from 6 to 8 January 2009, reformatted into three-hour-long episodes. All five episodes were broadcast consecutively as a Halloween feature length (2.5 hours) version on E4 on 31 October 2009. This was done again on 30 October 2011.
International broadcasts
Home media
The entire series was released on one DVD on 3 November 2008. The running time for the DVD is 141 minutes.
The DVD extras included interviews with the director, writer and cast, behind-the-scenes and special effects featurettes, and a selection of deleted and extended scenes, including:
As of September 2016, the series has become available to stream in the US on Netflix.
Reception
Dead Set has been acclaimed by critics and the public alike. It was nominated for a BAFTA for "Best Drama Serial", but lost out to Criminal Justice. The first episode, at its peak, received just under one and a half million viewers and 8.3% total audience share. Series average: 844,166 viewers (664,833 on E4, 179,333 on E4 +1). Series omnibus: 267,000 viewers (213,000 viewers on E4, 54,000 on E4+1).
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 budgetary constraints, 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 in the original Dawn of the Dead where two zombie children run.