Three politically themed links.

• A spoof Tory poster on the Guardian Unlimited Election Blog.
• The story of disgraceful attempt to restrict free speech using Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, via Jonathan Calder.
• I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before. Choose how to re-allocate the money spent on the Iraq War, courtesy of Reading LibDems. (Via Guardian Unlimited Election Blog.) I’ve not managed to get it to submit my figures, but the application design is very good.

When I first met Mark Gatiss, many years ago, he was very chuffed that I knew his work. His Doctor Who novel Nightshade was the first of the New Adventures I read. I’d seen his the BBV P.R.O.B.E. videos he wrote, and I’d listened to the League of Gentleman’s radio show (which at the time hadn’t yet transferred to TV).

The cause of this name-dropping is the premiere tonight of Mark’s first Doctor Who TV story, The Unquiet Dead. The preview in the Radio Times is very positive, as is the brief mention it gets in this Charlie Brooker’s Screen Burn in the Guardian Guide:

Before I go, a quick mention of Doctor Who (Sat, 7pm, BBC1), despite the blanket coverage the series has received elsewhere. Thing is, I simply can’t stand by and let this week’s episode, The Unquiet Dead, pass by without comment, for the following reason: I think it may be the single best piece of family-oriented entertainment BBC has broadcast in its entire history. It’s clever, it’s funny, it’s exciting, it’s moving, it’s got shades of Nigel “Quatermass” Kneale about it, it looks fantastic, and in places it’s genuinely frightening. TV really doesn’t get better than this, ever.

My review will probably appear some time tomorrow.

I’ve started watching the classic 1980s BBC adaptation of The Day of the Triffids.

Halfway in and despite the dodgy monster plants – and no realisation of a walking plant is ever going to seem true to life – it’s really rather good. John Duttine is a good lead and Maurice Colbourne and Stephen Yardley off of Howards’ Way and Davd Swift off of Drop the Dead Donkey have cropped up too.

There are clear similarities with 28 Days Later: Duttine’s character wakes in hospital to find the world changed and streets deserted. In this instance, most of the population have turned blind. The consequences shown are convincing and believable.

I’ll try to post a fuller review once I’ve watched the final three episodes.

Two people I knew in Leeds in very different ways were both in the news yesterday.

The National Agent for Veritas was on Channel 4 News. I recognised him immediately – but when I knew him he was a LibDem council candidate in Leeds. (Before which he was in the Referendum and Labour parties. More a Horam than a Marsden then.)

A rather less pleasant character I was acquainted with at uni was in court in Leeds yesterday. The former chairman of the Young BNP (sacked for going off message) was active on campus when I was a student union officer. He’s been charged with eight race hate offences following the BBC’s Secret Agent documentary.