I Need a Hero

Ben Dowell meets the cast of TV sensation Heroes as they hit London. But, he's left unimpressed by their super-powered razzle dazzle.

Heroes, the US drama in which a host of ordinary people turn out to have superhuman powers and have to save the world, has been wowing audiences on BBC2, with more than 2 million people regularly tuning in to the first run.

The BBC has signed up to two series and has also secured the first choice option on any more that producers NBC/Universal plan to make in the future – the cast have signed up to a six series option in case you were wondering.

The drama is also even attracting  a host of big name British actors – with Malcolm McDowell, Ricky Gervais and Christopher Ecclestone all joining in so it seems as if it will be around for some time to come.

And last week it was the turn of the main line up of American stars to swan into London  (or rather Number 30 St Mary’s Axe in London, better known as the Gherkin Tower)  to dazzle us assembled Brits with their wit and insight.

Hayden Panettiere, Jack Coleman, Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia along with NBC Universal executive producer Dennis Hammer all sat before us at the top of the building, to meet the British press in an enormously glamorous and impressive affair which is also carbon neutral if producers NBC/Universal’s promises are anything to go by.
 
The characters they play may have their own unique powers but even they were probably unprepared for the volley of questions that came their way (after, that is, a wait of about an hour because of the security queue).

First question of the night came from Nuts magazine asking, you guessed it, Hayden Panettiere what she most likes about British men eliciting the response that she had just “got off the plane” and will get back to us when she “sees something nice”.

I think you probably get the picture.
Then they were asked what they made of Christopher Eccleston, one time Doctor Who actor who we’ll see joining the series later on as a character who can make himself invisible.
This prompted them all to praise his warmth, generosity of spirit and all round brilliance as a performer and human being.
Particularly gushing was Ventimiglia who spoke with halting emotion about how in some scenes “I felt he was giving me more than I was giving him as an actor”. I nearly puked, if I am honest.

Next up was Jack Coleman, who plays Claire’s Dad Mr Bennet probably edged the funniest Heroes’ cast member award.
When a question was thrown out about which superpower they would most like to have he replied that the power to be invisible would be “really cool” but admitted that he probably shared something with Eccleston’s character  - the actor who played Steven Carrington in 1980’s soap Dynasty ‘fessed up that he had been “pretty much invisible for most of the nineties”.

In fact Coleman was the only actor who managed to cut through some of the gush.
After his fellow cast members claimed that they would be perfectly happy if they ever got killed off he introduced a bit of truth into proceedings: “Having said that, none of us have been fired but when we are we will be pissed off”. At last.

Adrian Pasdar, the one who plays fishy politician Nathan Petrelli was probably the most serious player of the PR game.

He told what seemed like an incredibly well-rehearsed story about running into US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama who asked if he could “learn anything” from his character.
In case you are interested, other superstars to have been run into by Heroes cast members included Spiderman Tobey Maquire who once clocked Milo Ventimiglia while Hayden Panettiere told us how excited she was to meet Ben Affleck.

And then there were the other equally well rehearsed anecdotes – laughing at the nutters who had written to tell them of their superhuman powers and so on.

But what was the point of this event? And didn’t we deserve more?
 The BBC, our public service broadcaster to which we pay a flat rate licence fee, is rumoured to have spent up to £500,000 of OUR money on this series – which is tosh, albeit well-made fairly compelling to watch tosh.

But I suppose one thing this did teach me was how different the US and British are when it comes to media management and publicity.
They really expected the British press to toe the line and – blinded I guess by the Hollywood glamour that had deigned to present itself – that is exactly what they did.

When I asked a question about the BBC deal,  BBC2 controller Roly Keating refused to name the figure while Dennis Hammer – clearly stunned that someone had the temerity to ask a less than gushing-to-the-point-of-fornication-right-there-and-then-at-the-press conference question - looked for other raised hands before my supplementary query about the BBC deal and option was answered.

That was how annoying it was.

Heroes, Wednesdays 9pm, BBC2

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