Big Brother is attacked by zombies; DRAMA DEAD SET MONDAY, E4, 10pm.

Byline: Graham Keal and Paul English

Zombies are set to overrun the Big Brother house - and you have to admit it's a great hook for a horror series.

Whether you love the show or not, you will want to see the undead ripping apart the place where it all happens.

TV critic Charlie Booker has turned writer and director to create the first horror series from Channel 4 or its off-shoots, starring Jaime (daughter of Ray) Winstone as Kelly, a lowly runner working on a fictional series of BB.

Outside the BB house, a zombie plague is spreading fast as the undead rise up and attack the living but the Big Brother inmates are unaware of the mayhem in the world outside - until the marauding zombies attack them.

Kelly tries to fend off the walking corpses alongside the remaining housemates and her Big Brother producer boss Patrick (Andy Nyman) and her boyfriend Riq (Riz Ahmed).

Over the ensuing days, in a cruel reflection of the game show they thought they were entering, the contestants fall victim one by one to the bloodthirsty masses outside.

Staying alive requires teamwork - which is tricky when you're a group specifically selected to wind each other up.

Booker, who co-wrote cult C4 comedy Nathan Barley with Chris Morris, says: "Just as a shopping mall was the ideal setting for the original Dawn of the Dead in 1978, so the Big Brother house seemed fitting for a TV zombie epic set in the 21st century.

"Dead Set isn't an out-andout comedy but a horrorthriller with blackly comic undertones. Think '24' with zombies."

And even Davina McCall has her throat cut.

CAPTION(S):

HORROR... Big Brother contestants fall victim to the blood-thirsty walking dead