Last updated 11:03, Saturday, 29 November 2008

A deadly virus even worse than man-flu has wiped out 90 per cent of the world’s population and the few that are left are right out of antibiotics.

They’re also a little light on social intercourse, if truth be known. Very few people are around to attend morning coffee meetings and whist drives.

The landscape is bleak, the future looks gloomy, prospects are grim... it’s like credit crunch multiplied by 50.

There’s only one comforting thought for these hardy survivors who are learning to be thankful for small mercies – no more traffic jams. Now, if you were to consider the scenario forming the platform for this drama series a touch too miserable to offer distraction from current woes, you might well be on the right track.

But Survivors (BBC1) makes efforts to divert us from our own awful worries by plunging us into other people’s even deeper ones. It’s called escapism.

The high adventure of soldiering on in the face of inept government, crumbling infrastructure, non-existent economy and everything falling too rapidly apart at the seams is fictitious... or is it?

All a bit too prophetic for me. All in all I’d rather be in Holby City.