But that's not how it turned out at all.

The plots are utterly preposterous, the dialogue clunky, the jokes leaden and the acting laughably wooden – but that isn't really the problem.

We would put up with all these faults if the show offered in compensation a bit of uncomplicated fun – after all, we lap up American series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Heroes to Desperate Housewives with uncritical relish.

No, the real problem is that the political commissars of the BBC no longer produce anything as straightforwardly simple as light entertainment. Everything has to be saddled with a lumbering, clunking political message.

It has happened before in shows including Spooks and Robin Hood, and now it's poor Bonekickers' turn.

What should be a joyful romp has been transformed into a crass piece of indigestible left-wing agitprop.

It illustrates perfectly the liberal intelligentsia's true view of the lumpen proletariat – the plebs can't be relied on to read the Guardian, so they feel they must insert subliminal messages into popular drama instead.

The first episode, for example, featured a group of bloodthirsty Christian terrorists who were persecuting peaceable Muslims (any Muslim portrayed in a BBC drama is invariably impossibly saintly).

At one point a Christian thug who styled himself on the Knights Templar, beheaded a peaceable, saintly Muslim with a Crusader sword – I kid you not.

This week's episode apparently featured evil white West Country racists and heroic black slaves, and included a US senator destined to become America's first black president. Subtle or what? I say apparently, because I didn't actually watch the second episode. I don't want to be preached at by some ex-public schoolboy who thinks he's the new Bertolt Brecht.

And it would seem I'm not alone. Bonekickers, the flagship of the BBC's summer schedule, has seen a catastrophic decline in its audience figures. Fully 20 per cent of viewers – 1.6 million people – abandoned the show after the first episode.

Future episodes apparently will include further lectures on the evils of the Iraq war – but by that time they'll be lucky if two pensioners and a dog are still tuning in.

It's about time the BBC stopped producing popular drama, especially when it turns out to be not so popular after all. Let's face it, the Americans do this thing so much better and they don't need £4bn a year in subsidy from the taxpayer.

A suspect claim

During the debate on the proposed 42-day detention without charge of terror suspects we were constantly told that such a move would make our legal system the most draconian in the Western world.

Organisations such as Liberty argued that no other comparable democracy holds suspects without charge for anywhere near as long.

Oh really? You may remember the dreadful case of Meredith Kercher, the Leeds University student murdered in November of last year while studying in Perugia, Italy.

Shortly after her body was discovered, her flatmate and two men were arrested on suspicion of murder. Since then – for more than seven months – they've been held in prison without charge. They were finally charged last week.

In truth, in countries that operate inquisitorial legal systems, such as France, Italy, Germany and Spain, the authorities can hold suspects without charge for months or even years.

Don't believe all the propaganda the human rights activists try to feed you.