Primeval

Saturday night, family entertainment. BBC struck gold a couple of years ago by bringing back Doctor Who. Then struck something else entirely with Robin Hood last year. Now ITV are trying to muscle in on the action with Primeval.

At face value, it should be a hit. I mean, dinosaurs terrorising 21st century housing estates... what's not to love? But episode one was very... well, it was very ITV, really.

I rarely love TV programmes on ITV, very occasionally they get it right, but more often than not they simply go for what I call 'lowest common denominator TV' - in trying to appeal to everyone, they end up with a fairly bland and predictable product that is watchable, occasionally entertaining, often dumb, but never great.

Oh, and if you're going to bring back animals from the Permian period, don't refer to them as 'dinosaurs'. Dinosaurs were a particular group of reptiles (which came along after the Permian), not a generic name for all pre-historic beasts. The folk who made 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and 'Walking with Monsters' sould know that!

So, it was OK. Passed an hour fairly happily. I'll watch again next week, but won't be gutted if I miss an episode.