MAYHEM IN MAJORCA: "MAD DOGS"!

Off to sunny Spain, and unaware of the nightmare to come, the four stars of MAD DOGS. Images: SKY ONE. 

SKY ONE’s continuing flirtation with making and selling its own unique drama programmes has been operating since the late nineties (anybody out there remember THE STRETCH, with EASTENDERS stars Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson, or the weird and largely unfunny drama/comedy THE STRANGERERS from RED DWARF creators/writer Rob Grant?) and has been strengthened in recent years with their involvement with and adapting of several of fantasy author Terry Pratchett’s DISCWORLD books and, most recently, with flavour of the month actor David Morrissey in his playing Detective Thorne in TV adaptation of the famous books by Mark Billingham. Now from the Isleworth Industrial Estate based company comes what looks set to be a modern iconic new four part drama/thriller, with a mix of black comedy thrown in: MAD DOGS, about a group of guys on a Jolly Boys Outing to Spain which soon becomes the holiday reunion from hell, from a story pitched by several of its stars determined to break through into both realms of the acting and scripted storytelling medium and create more noteworthy TV projects not only for them to work in but for audiences in general whose viewing habit boats, especially in the UK, find themselves sailing within a current sea of largely dross modern drama...

Much anticipated by their respective fan bases, the ultimate heavyweight acting combo/pedigree of LIFE ON MARS' Philip Glenister and John Simm, HUSTLE’s resident Jack the Lad con man Marc Warren, and SURVIVORS prison break hero Max Beesley are brought together by their long time pal Alvo (played by Ben Chaplin), basically the lynch pin of the opening episode, for what turns out to be a series of unfortunately painful and bizarre events which will test their ties of loyalty and responsibilities towards each other, and as a group, to the limit, against a sun and sangria atmosphere contaminated with murder and deception. One thing’s for sure, life will never be the same again for any of them, in what looks set to be a production peppered with a strong sense of style and tone not seen since the likes of Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley’s gripping cult hit, SEXY BEAST, and which will surely prove to be a big winner this year for SKY ONE (and HD), whose marketing/production team must have been knocked off their seats when these actors decided to join forces with them to bring MAD DOGS to life, and making the company ever more keen to create further successful and lucrative home grown productions of this ilk to match the quality imports they’ve been buying from the US.

The series poster promo for the new four part series.

Can MAD DOGS live up to the pre-transmission hype and its prior stylish photo/advertising campaign-trailers directed by the outrageous and clever VANITY FAIR photographer David LaChapelle (teaser link: http://sky1.sky.com/Sky1-HD-Mad-Dogs-New-David-LaChapelle-Promo), and featuring a creepy Tony Blair face masked, gun wielding assassin? Let’s certainly hope so!

Look for a KOOL TV review of MAD DOGS, starting next Thursday on SKY ONE (and HD), soon...