Primed for new views

BBC show Being Human has had rave reviews in Britain. Photo / Supplied

Prime's new season of TV shows has everything from how-tos and what-ifs, to shock-horrors. New BBC show Being Human, about three 20-somethings and their secret double-lives as a werewolf, a vampire and ghost, has received rave reviews. Another new drama, Survivors, imagines what would happen if a virulent disease scoured the planet, wiping out most of the human race. And Stargate Universe follows a band of soldiers, scientists and civilians who fend for themselves after their base is attacked.

On the comedy front there is British Q.I or Quite Interesting, full of quirky facts, obscure questions and quite interesting responses. From Kevin Abbott, who produced Roseanne, Grace Under Fire and My Name is Earl, comes Surviving Suburbia - the adventures behind the cookie cutters in the kitchens of picket-fenced suburban homes, and from the writers of King of the Hill is another comedy about a family - The Goode Family - struggling under their self-imposed political correctness.

New docos include the self-explanatory Ten Things You Need To Know About Losing Weight and Fifty Years of Film in New Zealand. In Make Me, award-winning journalist and former doctor Michael Mosley finds out whether cutting-edge science really can improve his life. Also in the line-up is Monty Python: Almost the Truth - the official history of the troupe - and Video Killed the Radio Star about the birth of the music video, now considered one of the hottest forms of entertainment.

On the NZ factual/reality front there's Danger Beach Muriwai and Homegrown, which follows a Kiwi family as they adopt a more self-sufficient lifestyle each week. And from Britain there's It's Me or The Dog with dog trainer Victoria Stilwell and Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey. Two new reality series include Meet the Hasselhoffs, where David's family take a trip to learn a bit about British culture and The Real Swiss Family Robinson, about four families who leave the comfort of Britain to play the survival game on Panama, Tanzania, Kiribati and the Cook Islands.