Blinking 'eck

Doctor Who cast a long shadow over Primeval this week. In a good way. Clearly they've realised there's been a lack of atmosphere and suspense in the series up till now, and attempts are being made to spook it up a bit. Hence, mythical beasts from the past, supernatural overtones and horror movie devices. Haunted house: check. Spooky girl in a red coat: check. Kids disappearing years ago: check. Hapless comic relief guy: check.

There were loads of things I liked about this episode, in fact it may be my favourite so far. Firstly, they kept the dull characters out of it and focussed on the freakishly made-over Abby, dappy Connor and Claudia Brown or whatever the fuck she's called these days. Secondly they did the excellent genre trick of stealing from the best, so there were tons of parallels with Stephen Moffatt's Doctor Who stories, especially the blood-curdling Blink, as well as with Stephen King. Thirdly, they kept the story small and claustrophobic rather than the old Primeval 'let a Mammoth loose on the M1' tactic. On the downside there's now so many regular characters that it's turning into cretaceous Crossroads. I'm hoping this means there will be a bloodbath of the boring before the end of the series.

And suddenly I have a whole new reason to watch. Oh yes. Detective Danny Quinn, played by the stupendously sexy Jason Flemyng. I mean, really. Proper acting and everything. Which it bloody well needs to compensate for Becker: Vin Diesel played by Jimmy Carr. Not that Flemyng needs to act to keep me watching. He just needs to frown, wiggle those hyper-mobile eyebrows and say absolutely anything with that syrup-over-sandpaper voice of his. Swoon.