Tweekums
I first saw this ITV drama when it was broadcast in 1999, since then I've watched it a couple more times and it remains gripping. Set in the near future after most of the world has been devastated by an asteroid a small group who survived because they were put into cryogenic suspension when their train crashed in Sheffield. They weren't meant to be frozen but one of them was heading for a government facility there and she had the cryogenic agent with her at the time of impact. The survivors are a varied group; the scientist, a policeman, a criminal, a failed businessman, a pregnant woman, a mother and her two children and two retired people. They have little common apart from their desire to survive. To this end they head to a place called ARC in Scotland where Harriet, the scientist, assures them they will find fellow survivors. On the way they encounter several dangers including wild dogs, acid rain and another group of people.While there is an over all story arc following their journey north each episode contains a new situation for them to overcome; in one they must face the other group to get a boat to cross a flooded river, in another they find a village and must decide whether they should stay their with two surviving villagers or head on North. The small cast do a fine job, notably Nicola Walker as Harriet, Zoe Telford as the pregnant Roe, Christopher Fulford and Ian the police sergeant and Caroline Carver as the mysterious Hild, a girl they meet along the way.At only six episodes the series is quite short and little time is wasted on non essential scenes; the characters are all interesting in their own way; some likable; some deliberately unlikeable and some who are doomed not to survive to the end. If this ever gets broadcast again in it certainly worth watching if you like post-apocalyptic dramas.
1sadbastard
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.
hugh1971
Spoilers ahead.As a big fan of the apocalyptic genre best exploited by John Christopher and John Wyndham, I was looking forward to this series. It started off well but it soon became ludicrously unbelievable.The train survivors at first think they have been in suspended animation for about four years, and this was just about plausible, but they later find out they have been in deep freeze for FIFTY years.While this is not necessarily impossible, it is not reflected in the settings. For example, someone manages to start a van that has been in a garage for fifty years and drive it for hundreds of miles. We see wrecked cars littering the roads with pristine paintwork, and houses in good repair - hardly likely after fifty years, most of which was a nuclear winter! Similarly the village pub that the group stay in looks like it could win an Egon Ronay award - it is clean, tidy and well maintained, there is a well stocked bar and the juke box strikes up as if it had never been turned off!Then at the end, the fact that the pursuers are in fact the survivors of 'Ark' is patronisingly drummed into the viewer several times. For a really good apocalyptic mini series, try Stephen King's 'The Stand' or BBC's 'Day of the Triffids' instead.
MikeR-22
If you liked any Quartermass, Threads, Village of the Dammed or books like "After the Rain", "Chalk Giants" or anything by John Wyndham then this is one for you.Unrelenting post-apocalypse depression that I believe only works if you grew in the U.K. in the seventies. I liked it a lot.