While staying on on Saturday night, we caught the late late omnibus edition of Lost. I had seen the ads for it, and had written it off as a nasty bit of cheap telly. But it was brilliant.

Three teams of two people [plus a cameraman] are flown somewhere and dropped off. They are not told where they are. They have no maps. They have camping gear and three days' food and water, and two-hundred dollars. The first team to touch Nelson's Column wins.

Last week's shows made for fascinating viewing. The teams were dropped on a remote Russian island inside the Arctic Circle. The entertainment was largely due to the nature of the contestants. All human life was here - tomboy Mel, whose job was given as "pub quizmaster". "Unemployed," said I. Anti-establishment west country boy Tom, inventor. ("Unemployed.") Hyperactive, psychotic alcoholic Charlie. And best of all, a Rastafarian named Herbtree.

Watching Tom and Herbtree bumble across Eastern Europe, trying to score some weed, charming every girl they met, and seemingly taking part in a very very drunken all-male orgy on a train, made for compulsive viewing. "The cameraman has lost his undies. What are all these stains on his T-shirt?"

You had to pity control-freak businesswoman Sarah, who had been teamed with an increasingly psychotic vodka-fuelled Charlie. She sensibly treated him like a child: "Come down from there now, and put that cigarette out."

The two girls were first back, having applied lipstick and hitchhiked through Germany and Holland, finding some poor gullible Belgian chap to drive them miles and lend them money. As a reward for all the hardship and poverty, they won 5,000 quid, and a chance to do it all again this week against two new teams. This time, it's the Sahara. Although I'll be tempted to watch it on Channel 4 at 10:30 tonight, I might just stay in next Saturday night, load up on the vodka and watch the omnibus. Oh, and Channel 4 may wish to take a look at this page on their web site!