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Curfew, review: this tooth-rattling, future shock-thriller roars off the starter-grid

Jason Thorpe (playing El Capitano), Billy Zane (as Joker Jones) and Guz Khan (as Cheese) in Curfew - Television Stills
Jason Thorpe (playing El Capitano), Billy Zane (as Joker Jones) and Guz Khan (as Cheese) in Curfew - Television Stills

Arriving amid flaming gasoline drums of hype, Sky One’s Curfew is a thrill ride with dodgy brakes and fluffy dice for brains. The setting is a dystopian London overrun by zombie-like creatures and also by ageing c-list actors seemingly desperate for a gig (including The Terminator’s Michael Biehn and Billy Zane, from Titanic and here wearing a cowboy hat). There are Mad Max-style tricked-out motors, death-defying chases (co-ordinated by former Top Gear Stig Ben Collins) and Sean Bean being grumpy, even by Sean Bean standards.

Everything is chucked into the blender by director Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders). Mario Kart, 28 Days Later, Ready Player One and Black Mirror are all shamelessly riffed upon and with a devil may care insouciance that’s hard not to warm too. It is a reminder that nobody in British telly does bonkers quite like Sky, which has made all eight episodes available, Netflix style, through its on-demand service (and also via Now TV).

Screaming engines, jowly celebs and living dead shambling from the shadows… written down it is true that Curfew sounds more like an outline for the rebooted Top Gear than the premise of a big-budget TV drama. Yet as future shock thriller it roars off the starter-grid.

A rag-tag of drivers with complicated backstories has assembled in London for a race to the death. The event is the brainchild of enigmatic zillionaire Max Larssen (The OC’s Adam Brody). Among the pitfalls that await are central London’s confusing road layout, soldiers with machine guns and fast-moving infected humans that only come out at night (hence the curfew).

Sean Bean (as The General) and Rose Williams (as Faith Palladino) 
Sean Bean (as The General) and Rose Williams (as Faith Palladino)

Bragging rights for most impressive vehicle go to Bean, with his armour-plated Jaguar XJS. He plays the General, a paranoid ne’er do well accompanied by pregnant girlfriend Faith (Rose Williams).

Also revving their motors are on-the-run hacker Roman (Ike Bennett) and family (his dad played by Adrian Lester) and Lou (Miranda Richardson) and daughter Hanmei (Thaddea Graham). Token sore thumbs are sensible ambulance-driving paramedic Kaye (Phoebe Fox) and love interest Michael (Malachi Kirby),who have their own reasons for wanting to get out of London and to the quarantined island where the race ends.

Because eight solid hours of chugging exhausts and squealing suspension would be ultimately boring, Curfew is fleshed out via flashbacks explaining the ensemble’s motivations. These run from confusing – having watched several times I’m still not sure what’s going on with Kaye and Michael – to genuinely terrifying. In the later category is the pre-zombie apocalypse origin tale of Faith, for whom a night of baby-sitting takes a turn for the skin-crawling.

Miranda Richardson (playing Lou Collins) and Thaddea Graham (playing Hanmei) 
Miranda Richardson (playing Lou Collins) and Thaddea Graham (playing Hanmei)

Curfew acknowledges its debt to late Seventies road warrior movies such as Mad Max and Death Race 2000 with a neon colour scheme and thumping analogue synth soundtrack. Alas, the production values are more banger than Bugatti. After an impressive race opening the penny-pinching kicks in as the drivers separate and end up tootling along in the dark on their own.

Moreover, Sky has been slightly cheeky in giving prominent billing to big names who, in several cases, don’t tarry nearly as long as might reasonably be expected. Still, the action is tooth-rattling and those actors with sufficient screen time to leave an impression put in admirably committed performances (keeping a straight face must have been difficult). Curfew is in the end miles too silly to be taken seriously. But it has its own charms, provided you leave your critical faculties in the glove box.