Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
HALLOWEEN TREATS
Sitcoms with a frisson of fear, a dark new drama, even a macabre reality show – TV’S certainly warming to the theme this week
Trick-or-treating is the frightfully fun way to celebrate Halloween – unless you’re in two of the nation’s most popular sitcoms. As TV embraces the spookiest night of the year, the stars of Motherland and Not Going Out discover a trek around the neighbourhood in search of chocolate and sweets can be hazardous.
In Motherland (Monday, 10pm, BBC2), the parents with children at the same west London school are horrified when the son of highly strung Amanda (Lucy Punch) disappears during the celebrations. And Kevin (Paul Ready) sees the darker side of Halloween when he opens his door to a group of young men in zombie masks.
‘He offers them some of his famous Halloween biscuits, short-deads, but what they really want is his money,’ says Paul. ‘It turns ugly.’
Meanwhile, mums Julia, Anne and Liz have someone else on their minds besides Amanda’s boy – actor and singer Lee Mead. ‘There’s a rumour he’s moved into the neighbourhood and Julia uses trick-or-treating as an excuse to find his house,’ explains Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays her. When Lee makes his appearance he gets a very surprising reaction from single mum Liz.
In Not Going Out (Wednesday, 10.35pm, BBC1), Lee, Lucy, their children and Lee’s dad Frank get some shocks when Lee drops his phone in the porch of a large Victorian house. ‘It’s when he goes to retrieve it that the fun really starts,’ explains Lee Mack, who plays Lee. The house proves to be classically scary, with creaking floorboards, mysterious sounds – and some alarming residents.
North of the border, there’s a nightmare brewing for two brothers after a road accident. Guilt (Wednesday, 9pm, BBC2), a fourpart black comedy that’s already started on BBC Scotland, sees Jake run over an old man in Edinburgh while driving home from an evening of celebration with his lawyer brother Max.
‘The poor man dies instantly and so begins the brothers’ desperate attempts to cover up their
involvement in his death,’ explains Mark Bonnar, who plays Max.
ITV2 is getting in the spirit with week-long reality show Killer Camp (tomorrow-thursday, 9pm). A group of young Brits arrive at Camp Pleasant, expecting Love Island-style fun, but are told there’s a ‘killer’ in their midst. ‘There’s a big money prize for the person who can identify the killer and stop the carnage,’ explains Bobby
Mair, the Canadian comedian who fronts Killer Camp.
Also on ITV2, Keith Lemon hosts a ghoulish special of his panel show Celebrity Juice (Thursday, 10pm) and you can scare yourself by tuning in to Discovering Film: Horror Special on Sky Arts (Thursday, 9pm), with clips from some of the scariest movies of all time. n