Horizon back

Horizon returns tomorrow night, with a programme about execution methods presented by Michael Portillo. There's a rather interesting Guardian article on it here.

Hopefully we won't see anything of the banality we saw with King Danny Wallace and the chimps last year, although I wouldn't expect something like that from Michael Portillo.

It also looks like the horrible existing logo and titles are to remain...

I hadn't seen the last series of Horizon but actually quite liked the logo and titles...

Anyway, I thought the programme was rather good. Yes the subject matter was perhaps a little sensationalist and it's clearly trying hard to attract an audience. But what's wrong with that? All programmes have to do that these days. I've mentioned this in the BBC News thread, but there was a slight cock up on the end credits where the squeeze was for a Ten o'clock News trailer was the BBC One version (Coming up in a few minutes here on One...")

A very good programme last night. I think if I had to die I would choose the nitrogen route!

Whatever our views on Portillo, it was nice to see him do a programme, where he got his hands dirty in the process (gas chamber, g-force machine etc) rather than using case studies.

A review from the Guardian.

I found this a great watch, fascinating even if a bit gruesome in places. Much better than the horsesh!t we got with Danny Wallace last series.

Wouldn't it be better to describe it as apesh!t?

I was a little disappointed with the new titles. Horizon have had some amazing ones in the past. The current set don't have any music at all, which is a great shame.

The programme was good though! Portillo is actually quite a good presenter. The subject was approached with quite an open mind; avoiding the easy trap of becoming embroiled in the rights and wrongs of capital punishment. It exists in many countries, this was a new angle on that debate.