It immediately occurs to the viewer, as they sit down to watch Sky1’s new series The Smoke, that there are surprisingly few firefighting based dramas around on television compared to their emergency service cousins. This is even more confusing considering that shows such as Holby City and Casualty are still going, clearly there isn’t much quality control when it comes to the genre of emergency drama. However, as the smoke attempt to fill this void in the market there is a painful realisation of just how interchangeable these types of series are.

The opening scene to The Smoke was truly like nothing you will have seen before. Ten harrowing minutes as we watch ‘gaffer’ of the station Kev Allison (Jamie Bamber) heroically enter an estate block engulfed in flames in order to save a baby (no emergency service clichés here then). The use of first person shots during this ordeal is incredibly powerful in giving the viewer a real sensation of being trapped in the building themselves, to the extent that you’re left so traumatised by the sequence of events the only remedy that springs to mind is a prescription for valium and a series of counselling sessions.

However, the audience are immediately reassured that it’s not just them and firefighters struggle with their career choice as well as we meet Al (Gerard Keams of Shameless fame), a younger member of the firefighter team in amongst the flames, suffering from a panic attack. Not to worry though, Kev reassures him and tells him to fetch an ALP, this ALP is apparently imperative for the job in hand, the only problem is that firefighting staff aside, viewers have no idea what one is, leaving them searching through Google rather than paying attention to the rest of the scene. For the record it’s an Aerial Ladder Platform.

It turns out that due to a combination of this ALP not arriving and a hooded thug kicking him to the ground, Kev ends up being horrifically burnt and the episode picks up nine months later on his return to work. His first day back has it all; the glamorous side of firefighting as sets of girls flash their boobs for the passing firemen (and women), as well as a call-in sending them back to the very same estate that Kev suffered his horrifying injury (those casualty story lines aren’t sounding too bad now).

At times it does feel like Sky are offering a refreshingly real insight into the life of a firefighter as Kev struggles to balance the trauma of his job, his home life and his social standing within the firehouse itself, yet it is cleverly balanced with a more light-hearted approach during some scenes such as a sing-along to Adele’s ‘Someone like you’ in the fire truck. Overall, the series seems to have some redeemable aspects in showing firefighting for what it really is, but being riddled with clichés, a cripplingly masculine hero figure and the confusion of emergency service jargon, there is a strong feeling that emergency service dramas struggle to offer anything new, regardless of the emergency service it focuses on.

Freddie Gray

Photo: www.sky.com