DOOM, GLOOM AND A BIG BOOM

IF you weren't depressed before you started watching Krakatoa: The Last Days (BBC1) on Sunday night, you were by the end.

Has there ever been a more unrelentingly morose piece of docu-drama on the box? If there has, I have missed that little treat! I know the subject of a volcanic island exploding and taking with it the lives of thousands isn't exactly comedy material, but every drama needs light and shade to help you to relate to the characters.

In this telling of the tale of the tragic 19th century natural disaster, when the Indonesian volcano claimed the lives of 36,000 people, there was nothing but the threat of impending doom, followed by the doom itself.

Spooks' Adam (Rupert Penry-Jones) took on the role of Willem Beijerinck, the Dutch controller of the region, whose family was at the centre of the cataclysmic event. Enemy spies and terrorists must have seemed a piece of cake compared to the situation he found himself in here.

By the time the drama unravelled, he and his family were burned and blistered wrecks, minus their small baby who had perished in the final tidal wave of hot gas.

As with most disasters, there is always one group of people who do something really stupid in the run-up to the event. Here it was a boatload of tourists, who were actually being taken to the island of Krakatoa to 'experience walking on an active volcano'. The boat's captain, a man who could have been the twin brother of Fiddler on the Roof actor Topol, took the bizarre decision to steer right into the tsunami when it finally arrived - and even more bizarrely the boat was able to ride the wave and come out intact on the other side.

It just goes to show - being sensible isn't always the best option in a crisis! This was emphasised when a lighthouse keeper's wife ventured out into the howling gales in search of the family dog as the tsunami approached, then watched as the lighthouse containing her husband and young son was demolished by the wave.

Life does appear to be essentially unfair, but we still keep trying to restore some order to the chaos. Our legal system, for example, is constantly under scrutiny from all sides of the punishment and/or rehabilitation arguments, and courtroom dramas continue to draw in good TV audience figures.

Following the success of Judge John Deed, the BBC has moved on to the saga of a batch of Manchester-based legal types in New Street Law (Thursday).

John Hannah plays the New Man legal eagle - who cycles to work, of course - at the hub of the drama. It also has John Thomson reprising his Cold Feet role, but in barrister's clothing. It's all a bit formulaic - good guy struggling to make ends meet, while daughter of legal dynasty 'above stairs' makes eyes at him. I think we need an adjournment of judgment on this series until new evidence of some originality is forthcoming.

Returning to Krakatoa, apparently when it finally exploded, it resulted in the loudest noise in recorded history, with the eruption being heard as far away as Australia. This, of course, was before Davina took on her bellowing host role in Big Brother!