So first, the good bits. Dougie Henshall. Charismatic, with that lovely Scots brogue and those twinkly blue eyes (I was never confused). Hannah Spearritt, who plays her lizard expert with a twitchy, gimlet-eyed stare that I presume is a deliberate metaphor for her character's career choice. Plus, the glimpse of her Kylie-tastic arse in the trailer for the second episode. Tres magnifique. Ben Miller, who seems to have walked in from some live-action Gerry Anderson show from ITC (actually, not a bad reference point for most of the production - Gerry Anderson's Jurrasic X-Files!). Big dinosaurs to please the kids. A good looking cast and an indie-lite soundtrack to please the tweens. And just enough intrigue to keep the adults watching.
Yes, it was cliched, the script dropped a few leaden clunkers, and the entire cast seemed like a hodge-podge of nicked archetypes from other shows. Even compared to recent British SFtv, the effects looked a bit... gauzy. But I still liked it enough to hope it does well. 'Cus if it does well, ITV might continue on producing stuff like this, and eventually something great just might be the result.
And, yeah - Britain's dino-hellmouth is located in The Forest Of Dean. What would Dennis Potter think?