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Zomboat is a new ITV2 comedy which brings us something we haven’t seen before – Zombies and boats! Together at last!
That’s because zombies have arrived in Birmignham, much to the annoyance of Kat (Leah Brotherhead) and Jo (Cara Theobold), the latter of whom is particular annoyed because it’s started in her own bedroom, in the body of her latest conquest. Yes, normally, on a Sunday morning, it’s time to relax, not worry about a zombie apocalypse that’s finally happened, because we all know it’s coming one day.
Maybe it already has? How else can you explain Jamie Oliver?
So, how to escape? Run out the house in your wellies, and head to the canal because it leads all the way down to London and, as Kat knows from her extensive viewing of particular films and TV shows, zombies can’t swim!
There’s a lot of humour and sharp editing, as well as trying to get to grips with understanding the basics of the situation that they’re in, with the former coming out brilliantly as red-haired Leah has all the movie references: “They move like Walking Dead zombies, not like 28 Days Later zombies!”
And she comments to Cara, “This is going to be tough for you, because you’ve not seen a single George A Romero film(!)”
And when Cara has her moment of fame with a zombie:
- Cara: “I killed her”
Leah: “She was dead already(!)”
But I’m not going to list any other jokes in the show, so rest assured that Zomboat is regularly hilarious, mixing the realing of the horrendous zombie situation with every day practicalities like signing up to a mobile phone data plan; and it does have some neat, bloody violence in there, such as a knife blow to the face.
There’s also the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio of most zombie movies, to help it fit in well, and despite all the blood and gore, the most disgusting thing is that…. there’s no sugar left for the tea! Egads!
Zomboat begins tomorrow night on ITV2 at 10pm. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but after each episode is broadcast, they’ll be on the ITV Hub.
Series 1 Score: 8/10
Director: Adam Miller
Producer: Matthew Mulot
Music: Ian Masterson
Cast:
Jo: Cara Theobold
Kat: Leah Brotherhead
Sunny: Hamza Jeetooa
Amar: Ryan McKen
Julie Johnson: Jodie Saunders
Jude: Callum Kerr
Rob: Rory Fleck Byrne
Train Guard: Daniel Barnard
Zombie Horde: Maja Bloom, Chloe Oliver, Leon Corbin, Rishi Rai, Sam Faruki
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.