Despite there being some great people involved in this - the creator of the Phoo Action, Jamie Hewlett for one, and co-writer Jessica Hynes for another - I had my reservations. On one hand, I loved the idea of it: a modern comic brought to life on screen, with a young, exciting cast and a distinct whiff of irony in the air. On the other though, I was distinctly worried that it could off as very 'try-hard'; too much desperation to be cool, or cutting edge, or, well, just funny.

Having watched it, I'm afraid I'm still kinda in the same boat. We know that Paul loved it, and I agree that there were some great moments, but at the same time I had real issues trying to work out what it wanted to be. I feel, though, that I missed a lot that could be enjoyed while I was over-analysing, and trying to get my head around the whole thing...

To give you a quick run-down of the setting and plot, we're in London, 2012 (and one step to the left), and the hour started with the storming of Buckingham Palace - and semi-accidental assassination of the Queen - by a bunch of... freaks is probably the best word to evoke a visual image, but we'll go with the police's favoured term 'filthy mutant insurrectionists'. The father of our heroine (who, as Paul has pointed out, is played by the man who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky films), is head of the police, and so is set on the mutants' trail, hopefully apprehending them before they reach the princes Wills and Harry. But it quickly becomes clear that Whitey - the aforementioned heroine - has some of the brains that her father lacks. She's smart, sassy and bored, and is clearly destined for something big.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, we meet Terry Phoo - an ass-kicking Buddhist law enforcement officer, who has been drafted in to help with the investigation. He takes with him to London Buddha's loincloth, which will be worn and used only by The Chosen One. Now who might that be, I wonder...?

The mutants, or Freebies as they're known, decide to throw a party for the Princes (they know their target, clearly), where they hope to capture them, and turn them into 'one of them', so that Britain will have mutant leaders. In Britain 2012 and one step to the left, Prince Charles is notable by his absence, I should mention. A quick dance routine to CCS later (dance routines are obligatory for all things 'quirky', of course) and Whitey and Phoo have met, and found a kindred spirit in one another. Before long they're bringing down the mutant traitors - with Whitey wearing Buddha's hotpants - on their own.

As for whether I liked it or not... I'm still not entirely sure, but it intrigued me enough to make me want to watch it again and find out for definite. They got the casting right, that *is* for sure, though. Eddie Shin, who plays Phoo, has great comic timing, and a rather sweet innocence to go with his kung-fu moves, and Jaime Winstone (yup, daughter of Ray) just exudes attitude from every pore. Together they made for a charismatic pairing - their fight over whether to play Girls Aloud in the car especially made me giggle.

But something was missing... I think the direction from Euros Lyn (he's done Doctor Who in the past) was a little pedestrian for something so off the wall. If you've got puppet-type mutants wandering around, you can't shoot them in a normal way or they'll just look like, well, puppets. It's not often I say this, but I could have done with a bit more silly camera-work, to be honest.

It's clear that they were aiming for an updated Batman And Robin, and that's a worthy goal, but a certain spark, and a certain wit was missing that would have really grabbed me. There's potential, certainly, and I can't help but think that a few epsiodes at half an hour, rather than a one hour special, would have been the way to go.