Not sure if this is confirmed or not yet, but it would appear that Christopher Eccleston is to join the cast of NBC’s new Lost beater - Heroes. If this news is true, then you have to conclude that it’s going to be a real waste if Heroes ends up on the Sci-Fi channel (which is supposedly bringing it to UK screens next year). After all, with repeats of The Tomorrow People and Quatermass excepted, the Sci-Fi channel has remained one of the last ports of call on most people’s remote controls.

However, Heroes is worth tuning in for. Having watched the first six episodes, this is a series that combines the breath-taking turning-your-world-upside-down cliffhangers of the kind found in the aforementioned Lost, without that series’ horrendous tendency for slowing the plot down to a crawl for weeks on end. In fact five out of the first six eps of Heroesend on really belting twists or reveals and right now I can’t think of a brand new drama series I’ve enjoyed this much in ages.

Of course Heroes‘ central premise is pretty familiar to those with a working knowledge of American comic books. But it has to be said the show handles the whole concept of “what would it be like if superheroes actually existed in the real world” with a refreshing originality that sidesteps most of the preoccupations of the so-called “mature readers” graphic novel market.

Admittedly it probably helps that I grew up on a diet of Spider-Man and, later Watchman comics, but before Heroes I had presumed that any such interest I once nursed had died out at the end of my teenage years.

I’m not sure, then, if that’s an endorsement for Heroes or rather an acknowledgement that man’s struggle to realise that with great power comes great responsibility is an enduring fascination for those of us who once made theirs Marvel. Anyway, be sure to find out for yourselves, but be warned there’s every chance Heroes will sneak onto UK screens rather than herald its arrival through billboard posters.