''Dead Set'' is a British
zombie
A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...
horror miniseries written and created by
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
and directed by
Yann Demange
Yann Demange (born 1977) is a French film director of French and Algerian parents, who grew up in London. After directing the well-received television series ''Dead Set'' (2008) and ''Top Boy'' (2011), he made his directorial film debut with the cr ...
. The show takes place primarily on the set of a fictional series of the real television show ''
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
''. The five episodes, aired over five consecutive nights, chronicle a
zombie outbreak
Zombie apocalypse is a genre of fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack hum ...
that strands the housemates and production staff inside the ''Big Brother'' House, which quickly becomes a shelter from the undead.
''Dead Set'' is a production of Zeppotron, part of the
Endemol
Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...
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 the same channel.
Cast
Cameos by former ''Big Brother'' housemates
Episodes
Production
Writing
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
said that the basic idea for the series came about in 2004, as he watched the American series ''
24''. He commented: "I'm enjoying this, but these terrorists are just ridiculous. They're like waves of
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
. They might as well be zombies."
Following this, he imagined an apocalypse occurring during the filming of ''
Big Brother
Big Brother may refer to:
* Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four''), a character from George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''
** Authoritarian personality, any omnipresent figure representing oppressive control
** Big Brother Awards, a sat ...
''.
He cited the Big Brother House as an excellent place to hide during a zombie apocalypse.
The first draft of the script was written in 2005, during the airing of ''
Big Brother 6''.
He based some of his fictional housemates on actual former housemates. For example, he cited
Maxwell Ward and
Saskia Howard-Clarke
''Big Brother 2005'', also known as ''Big Brother 6'', was the sixth series of the British reality television series '' Big Brother''. The show followed sixteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an ext ...
as inspirations for Marky and Veronica, with Pippa and Space being loosely based on
Helen Adams
Helen Adams (born 30 May 1978) is a Welsh television personality who rose to fame in the United Kingdom when she was chosen to be a contestant on the second series of the reality television show '' Big Brother'', in 2001.
''Big Brother''
Adams ...
and
Kieron "Science" Harvey respectively.
For further inspiration, he attended the live eviction of
George Galloway
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...
during ''
Celebrity Big Brother 4'', where he also visited the camera runs that surround the House.
Beyond ''Big Brother'', Brooker noted several examples of
zombie fiction that had inspired him, including the ''
Dead
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
'' series of films by
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
, ''
Zombie Flesh Eaters
''Zombi 2'' is a 1979 Italian zombie film directed by Lucio Fulci. It was adapted from an original screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti to serve as a sequel to George A. Romero's '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978), which was released in Italy with the t ...
'', ''
28 Days Later
''28 Days Later'' is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagi ...
'', ''
The Walking Dead'', ''
The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue
''Let Sleeping Corpses Lie'' ( it, Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti, ''Do Not Profane the Sleep of the Dead''; es, No profanar el sueño de los muertos, ''Do Not Profane the Sleep of the Dead''), also known as ''The Living Dead at Manc ...
'' and ''
Zombie Creeping Flesh''.
Angela Jain, then head of
E4 announced that she had commissioned the series in April 2008,
although the true nature of the project was not publicly revealed until August of that year.
Filming
The ''Big Brother'' eye logo featured in ''Dead Set'' was described by Brooker as a combination of several of the real logos used throughout the series.
The design of the fictional ''Big Brother'' set was made to look as authentic as possible - it featured similar cameras,
two-way mirrors
A one-way mirror, also called two-way mirror (or one-way glass, half-silvered mirror, and semi-transparent mirror), is a reciprocal mirror that appears reflective on one side and transparent at the other. The perception of one-way transmission i ...
(which could be angled to avoid revealing the camera crew),
astroturf
AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...
and the actual (albeit slightly modified) Diary Room chair from ''
Big Brother 8''.
Filming inside the fictional ''Big Brother'' set for the first episode was done using
Digital Betacam
Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself.
All ...
technology, to retain the look and feel of the actual ''Big Brother'' series. The rest of the scenes were shot using the
Arriflex D-20
{{short description, American digital motion picture camera
The Arriflex D-20 is a film-style digital motion picture camera made by Arri first introduced in November 2005. The camera's attributes are its optical viewfinder, modularity, and 35m ...
.
Filming for the series took place over the summer of 2008, mainly at
Longcross Studios
Longcross Film Studios is a film and television production facility in Longcross, Surrey, approximately west of central London. Built on the site of the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment, the studio began operations in 2006.
The stu ...
and the surrounding areas. The eviction of Pippa (
Kathleen McDermott
Kathleen McDermott (born 21 May 1977) is a Scottish actress, singer, model, and make-up artist. She is best known for her roles in the feature film '' Morvern Callar'' (2002), the television film ''Wedding Belles'' (2007), and the miniseries ...
) was filmed at the actual ''Big Brother'' House in Elstree, on 18 July 2008 - the same night that
Belinda
Belinda is a feminine given name of unknown origin, apparently coined from Italian ''bella'', meaning "beautiful". Alternatively it may be derived from the Old High German name ''Betlinde'', which possibly meant "bright serpent" or "bright linde ...
was evicted. Before she left the house, McDermott was placed in the stairwell of the House, and "evicted" in front of the show's live audience. McDermott and
Davina McCall
Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter. She was the presenter of the reality show ''Big Brother (UK), Big Brother'' during its run on Channel 4 between 2000 and 2010. She also hosted Channel 4's '' ...
had previously shot an improvised "eviction interview".
In addition, several former ''Big Brother'' housemates appeared as themselves and were filmed chatting to each other as part of a fictional "reunion", before ''Dead Sets crew members "surprised" them in order to film a shocked reaction.
Scenes featuring McCall as a zombie were filmed in one day, and the bodies lying around the corridor during the scene were created with SFX dummies (besides
Eugene Sully
''Big Brother 2005'', also known as ''Big Brother 6'', was the sixth series of the British reality television series '' Big Brother''. The show followed sixteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an ext ...
'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
The T-1000 is a fictional Character (arts), character in the Terminator (franchise), ''Terminator'' franchise. A shapeshifter, shapeshifting Android (robot), android Terminator (character concept), Terminator Assassination, assassin, 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 and time 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.
Brooker cited similar constraints as the reason for the elimination of his original concept for the final episode, which would have been set six months after the outbreak.
Many of the zombies featured in the crowd scenes - including the final assault on the house - were volunteers recruited through the internet.
Charlie Brooker himself also has a brief cameo as a zombie in the second episode.
Release
Promotion
A map for the
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...
region, the site of the real ''Big Brother'' House, was added to the ''
Urban Dead
''Urban Dead'' is a free-to-play HTML/text-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by British developer Kevan Davis. Set in a quarantined region of the fictional city of Malton, it deals with the aftermath of a zombie outbre ...
'' MMORPG - with a competition to win a copy of the DVD as part of the promotion of the series.
A website for ''Dead Set'' was launched on 17 September 2008. There also was a
viral marketing
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way tha ...
site at UnseenScreen.com which had a clip of an interruption to the Big Brother live feed. The website would ask for your name and date of birth to make sure you are 18 or over. This clip shows an unknown woman wearing a leather jacket and trousers trapped in a destroyed Diary Room, covered in blood. screaming for help. The sound cuts out for the majority of the video, only her screaming "Help me." and the name entered can be heard. She then turns to the wall behind her and struggles to write “Help me (Name)”, and the date of birth entered on the wall in blood. The video then goes to a card saying "Dead Set Coming Soon" with an address to the E4 Dead Set site. Advertisements for the show were aired on
E4 and its parent,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
, with a final trailer appearing on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
on 27 October.
Original broadcast
The series launched on
E4 on 27 October 2008, and concluded on 31 October 2008. All five episodes were broadcast consecutively as a
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
feature length (2.5 hours) version on E4 on 31 October 2009. ''Dead Set'' was repeated on Channel 4 from 6 to 8 January 2009, reformatted into three-hour-long episodes.
International broadcasts
Home media
The entire series was released on DVD on 3 November 2008, and again in a repackaged format on 19 October 2009. The running time for the DVD is 142 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:
* 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
''8 Out of 10 Cats'' is a British comedy panel show broadcast on Channel 4 and its sister networks, airing since 3 June 2005. The show is hosted by Jimmy Carr; the current team captains are Rob Beckett and Katherine Ryan.
The show is based on ...
''
* A scene featuring Patrick discussing "recycling" Grayson's body
* An extended version of Patrick mocking Veronica over her relationship with Marky
* Pippa's death in the final episode at the hands of her undead mother.
The series is currently available to stream in the UK, Canada and the US on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
.
Reception
''Dead Set'' has been acclaimed by critics and the public alike.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
assigned the series a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
In 2009, it was nominated for a
BAFTA for "Best Drama Serial", but lost out to ''
Criminal Justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
''.
Simon Pegg
Simon John Pegg (né Beckingham; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. H ...
, a co-writer and star of the zombie comedy film ''
Shaun of the Dead
''Shaun of the Dead'' is a 2004 zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden salesman in London who is caught in a zombie apocalypse with his friend Ed (Nick Frost). The fi ...
'', commented on ''Dead Set'' for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. 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
''28 Days Later'' is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagi ...
'' 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
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd President ...
films in which the zombies behaved non-traditionally, including a scene in the original ''
Dawn of the Dead'' where two zombie children run.
Legacy
In 2013, Brooker confirmed that the ''
Big Brother 14'' production team sought his approval (which he granted) of a "quarantine" task inspired by ''Dead Set'', which saw housemates being subjected to a fictional viral outbreak.
Steve Greene of
IndieWire
IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...
, reviewing the series in 2017, noted similar themes in ''Dead Set'' and Brooker's later series, ''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...
''. He described the former as "an analog precursor to the digital-themed entertainment" featured in the latter.
On April 24, 2019, the production of the Brazilian series ''
Reality Z
''Reality Z'' is a Brazilian horror web television series based on the British television miniseries ''Dead Set''. Produced in partnership with Conspiração Filmes and directed by Cláudio Torres, the first season of 10 episodes premiered on Ne ...
'' was announced, which was based on ''Dead Set''. The show premiered on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
in 2020.
The
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, which saw contestants of
''Big Brother'' around the world being isolated from news of the pandemic before being released back into a world under lockdown, drew comparisons with ''Dead Set''.
See also
*''
One Cut of the Dead
is a 2017 Japanese zombie comedy film written and directed by Shin'ichirō Ueda. It follows a team of actors and filmmakers who are tasked with shooting a zombie film for live television, and who must do so in a One-shot film, single take.
Made ...
''
References
External links
Official website Archived on 2008-12-02
*
{{Charlie Brooker
2008 British television series debuts
2008 British television series endings
2000s British horror television series
2000s British satirical television series
Big Brother (British TV series)
British horror comedy television series
British horror fiction television series
Channel 4 original programming
Reality television series parodies
Television series about television
Television series created by Charlie Brooker
Television series by Banijay
Television series by Zeppotron
Zombies in television