The Last Train

At a time when ITV was struggling to make drama that did not revolve around a rose tinted view of the fifties or was based in a medical practise in the Derbyshire hills this post apocalyptic (forgive the corny cliche) drama came as a welcome surprise. With a cast of familiar faces but no real stars this was 6 episodes of excellent well written and characterised drama. The similarity with Survivors is evident. The main character in Survivors searched for her son, in The Last Train the main character searched for her former lover. Still they both got into scrapes to entertain us.

Commendable performances from James Hazeldine and Treva Etienne and a truly moving death scene form Amita Dhiri (remember that punch in This Life) but more than this was a taut plot that had twists and turns but was still focussed.

I would hope The Last Train would be released on DVD sometime soon, It was great.

I was 10 when this was shown on ITV back in 1999. I always remember it was a good show. But being young I never understood what it was really about. It would be great to watch this show again after nearly 22 years, since it was shown on itv. Can we have this available online or even DVD or blu-ray. These days itv doesn't show good shows like The Last Train, London's Burning, Heartbeat etc. If only itv can show these shows again on itv or even itv 2. Instead of the rubbish they put on today especially game shows and so called reality TV shows!!!

A good premise is let down by some occasional dodgy writing, but maybe that's to be expected with 6 50 minute episodes to fill. The "diary" of the little girl sounds very cheesy to my ears and some of the characters behaviour (the guy going back to his office, the black guy going to a lock up to get a £400 suit) is downright stupid. Take your bloody ties off for god's sake. Some of the acting is a bit dodgy too, now and again. But it has to be applauded for attempting something this ambitious and is certainly watchable. It just could have been so much better with a little more time and money - but couldn't everything? I've given it 6 out of ten.

We didn't get a huge amount of science fiction in 1999, but there were snippets, the best of them I thought was the last Train. I was lucky enough to see the repeats on itv3 some years back, and it's just as I remember, bleak, imaginative and unrelenting. There were some touching scenes, as the group attempted to survive together, and there were some shocking moments also, the scene with the dogs for one.

The first time I became aware of just how wonderful Nicola Walker is, she's a terrific actress, and was great in this. It was such a disappointment at the time that it didn't return, there was more mileage here. At one stage they set it in Pontins Prestatyn, somewhere I holidayed as a youngster.

There's a review dated 1999 where someone asks for the video, twenty years later I ask for a DVD release, I imagine in another twenty years time someone else will ask for a release on whatever format is relevant.

There was too much hype over this series at the start, but as the series continued there was no advertising at all. However I really quite enjoyed this series. For once it is the common British public trapped in an apocalyptic tale. From start to finish you hang on to every emotion and problem that the survivors suffer. Incredibly moving in parts and quite chilling, this story was certainly worth the £4 Million to make it, Carlton T.V.'s highest ever payment to produce a show. Great story with a number of interesting twists at the end. Definitely worth watching.