I don’t know which bit of that title has me shitting my pants with excitement more.

The fact that someone is going to give Joe Ahearne the money to do his own thing is overdue but still fantastic  news. As the creator of Ultraviolet (the UK series not the crappy Milla Jovovich/Kurt Wimmer movie travesty), which is, for me, television’s best ever vampire show (and yes, Buffy, I can see you jumping up and down in the corner, and yes I am pointedly ignoring you),  Joe Ahearne should have been leading the UK sf rennaissance the best part of a decade before RTD got his hands on Dr Who and made us safe for prime time again.

Instead he’s spent the best part of ten years doing stray episodes of Strange and, yes, Dr Who.

But, this, now, well… this news could be something else entirely.

“It is a new and original superhero idea which is not a send-up. All the super hero stuff that is on TV in this country - ITV’s No Heroics, My Hero - British TV is happy to do if it is a send-up, but no one has done it for real. There is a particular gimmick in mine, which I won’t give away, but it means it will be refreshed every episode.”

Oooh!

And he said that it was inspired by his love of Marvel comics.

We know that the show will feature a new character in every episode, telling their full story from start to finish - I wonder if the “gimmick” is something like Captain Universe where the “powers” skips from needy person to needy person?

The show is to be produced by the people behind Primeval - which bodes pretty well for the special effects - and the scripts apparently have been commissioned but the show is waiting the go ahead from the BBC as they try to find a free space on their Saturday tea-time slot to fit it in around Dr Who, Merlin and (gods help us) the third series of Robin Hood.

Here’s an idea I’ll give the BBC for nothing - instead of cramming all the interesting stuff on one night, why not open up a second front on the family entertainment schedule. Move the mystic stuff - Merlin, Robin Hood - to Sundays (just before you announce the winner of some talent contest or other) - and leave the exciting sci-fi on a Saturday. Unless ITV clone Harry Hill, you’re can sit back, relax as you smash the opposition out of sight on both weekend nights.

This could be cool. You can read the full story at The Stage