This Sunday sees the debut of Sinbad, Sky1’s biggest ever British commission – and their most expensive show to date.

To celebrate the show, CultBox went along to a screening of the first episode as part of the BFI’s Film Funday last weekend. The event was attended by various members of the cast, and hosted several activities for children to take part in, as well as displaying some of the costumes and props from the series.

Sinbad – as you might expect from a fantasy series aiming to stand against the BBC’s Merlin and Doctor Who – is a pacy and exciting slice of slightly camp, slightly cheesy family fun.

The adventure starts off in the ancient city of Basra, where Sinbad and brother Jamil are Aladdin-esque street-rats, cheating and stealing in order to survive and keep their mysteriously catatonic mother in comfort. However, when one of their hustles goes wrong, Sinbad finds himself on the wrong side of a vengeful Lord Akbari (Lost’s Naveen Andrews), and Sinbad is forced to flee the city.

Not only that, but his grandmother – in order to help Sinbad better his ways – places a curse upon him, whereby he will not be able to set foot on land again for one year. And thus Sinbad the Sailor is born!

The first episode has the troublesome task of setting up a multitude of characters and ideas, some of which work better than others, but the pace is fast, and there’s so much packed in that there’s little opportunity for boredom. As the eponymous hero newcomer Elliot Knight posseses the boyish charm to make Sinbad a fittingly roguish lead, but also lends him the arrogance and naivety to prove that he isn’t a flawless hero.

The special effects are very good, with the city-scapes of Basra being particularly impressive, while an attack on Sinbad’s ship by some water-demons is the sort of brilliantly innovative CGI that we don’t see enough of.

Director Colin Teague (Being Human, Torchwood) handles that particular sequence wonderfully; it’s tense, exciting, and the soundtrack ratchets up the drama; however some of the more intimate, hand-to-hand action sequences give more cause for concern. They’re choppy and poorly edited, shown up by the larger scale fantasy moments.

Despite the ancient Middle-East setting, the soundtrack is decidedly modern –all thrumming bass and rolling synths. Most of the characters get dressed up in lavish costumes, appropriate to the setting, but – like the BBC’s Robin Hood before him – Sinbad himself appears to have just stepped out of a Topman catalogue, while characters all speak in modern parlance. It’s safe to say historical and cultural accuracy is low on the agenda.

While there are some concerns with this opening episode, Sinbad definitely shows promise, and based on this opener – should the show go down that route – it certainly has the potential to do the Monster of the Week thing with more success than Primeval ever really managed.

It’s not until the episode’s close that we’re really sure of who’s going to be a main, recurring character, but the ones we’re left with are a colourful bunch, including fellow thief and stowaway Rina (Marama Corlett) and nervy, seasick doctor Anwar (Dimitri Leonidas). And if we don’t get to see some of them in too much detail here, it will be fun to explore them as things progress.

Quite how Naveen Andrews and Fringe’s Orla Brady back in Basra will fit in on a weekly basis remains to be seen, but we suspect the real fun will be with the crew.

Airing at 7pm on Sundays, Sinbad is definitely aimed at a family audience, although it’s not afraid to go to more adult places. One instance in this opener – the catalyst for Sinbad’s flight – is particularly dark, but there should be more opportunity for humour down the line, once the crew of the ship all settle into their rhythms and chemistry forms.

There are also plenty of exciting guest-stars coming up, including Dougray Scott, Mathew Horne, Sophie Okonedo and Harry Potter’s Timothy Spall later down the line, all of which should make Sinbad definitely something to come back to week after week.

> Order the Series 1 DVD on Amazon.

Some of the cast and crew were in attendance for a Q&A session after the screening and spent half an hour answering questions from the kids in attendance…

> Read our highlights from the Q&A.

Watch the launch trailer…

Are you looking forward to Sinbad? Let us know below…