Attachments

Having given the world Between the Lines and This Life (for which we should be truly grateful), Tony Garnett has come up trumps again with this fine series about an internet start-up company.

Nude skateboarding, drug taking, plenty of sex and swearing are a heady mix for any show and Garnett has spent the last 30 years in showbiz without knowing how to grab an audience and keep the hooked from the word go.

The advantage of Attachments is that not only are the scripts fine (episode 2 was written by Coronation Street veteran Amelia Bullmore trivia fans), but there's also a live website that mirrors the drama should you be pining for more of the show between episodes.

The cast of young sexy businessmen and women, not to mention the obligatory cyber geeks, inevitable gay character (This Life featured a gay man or two so this series features a lesbian) are fine.

Justin Pierre (Burnside) and Liz Hurley lookalike Claudia Harrison shine as the struggling marrieds who attempt to overcome their lack of cash and their major backer dying in the toilet (captured on webcam).

One of the best dramas on British TV in October 2000 and likely to garner at least one more series. However, Garnett has learned his lesson in taking too many trips to the well and will probably pull the plug at the end of the second run.

I watched nearly 8 minutes of this show and I don't regret it. Back in 2000 it was hard to believe that fragments of the cast of successful lawyer based dramedy This Life would ever find meaningful work again. Technically none of them are in this, but many of the tropes we all enjoyed are present. Nice one BBC3 (or 5) for making this available on blu-ray

There are a couple of problems with hi-tech dramas.

One: they can often be a bit like watching someone typing really fast. Or to put it another way, as dull as a party political broadcast.

Two: the script usually features more jargon than a memo from Bill Gates.

Producer and deviser Tony Garnett was well aware of this when setting up his new series, perhaps best described as This.Life2. So he kept just enough hi-tech lingo in to keep the computer fans happy but never let it swamp the proceedings.

Give the man his due: Garnett really knows how to hook the viewer from the word go, as he proved with Between the Lines and The Cops.

So in episode one, we had a heady mix of nude skateboarding followed by the obligatory bedroom scene to stop millions switching channels in the first five minutes.

However, unlike many shows that fail to keep viewers hooked, the pace did not let up for the next 50 minutes.

The plot, in a nutshell, centres on a sexy young internet startup company with a cool boss (Burnside veteran Justin Pierre), his gorgeous Liz Hurley lookalike wife and partner (Claudia Harrison) and the inevitable cross section of geeks, eclectic co-workers and a money-grabbing boss who seems okay on the surface but turned out to be a leech.

Thrown into the mix was cyber stalking, the fact that the firm had just enough money to keep the company afloat for a week and the slight problem of losing two days work and having to do everything again.

Whether it becomes as addictive as This Life remains to be seen, but with some fine scripts by TL veteran Richard Zajdlic and ex-Corrie actress Amelia Bullmore (Steph Barnes), not to mention a cast of likeable losers and sexy yuppies, it's going to be a lot of fun finding out.

Unmissable.com.