Fast-paced, expertly told capers from the other side of the Atlantic return exclusively to Bravo from Wednesday 28 July at 9.00pm. Gang leader Nate Ford (Oscar-winner Timothy Hutton) gathers the Leverage group once again to seek revenge on the wealthy and wicked. Not only that, but the series returns with some ‘Cult’ stripes to its name, as its first season is one of the nominees for the “Best New Premium Channel Series” in this year’s Cult TV Awards.

Those of you who like Hustle will love this show. The Leverage team of renegades includes British beauty (Gina Bellman of Coupling and Jekyll fame) as Sophie Devereaux, a grifter with a taste for expensive art (or, at least, its theft) whose feminine wiles turn most men into putty in her hands. Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) stars as the show’s rough-diamond lothario with a heart of gold, a highly skilled martial artist, weapons guru and retrieval expert. Added to the mix is expert thief, cat burglar and pickpocket Parker (Beth Riesgraf) who lives solely for the thrill of the con. The team is completed by the technology expertise of the master computer hacker (Aldis Hodge, Friday Night Lights) as Alec Hardison.

Everyone loves zombies, and with this horror sub-genre still attracting a lot of interest, it must be very difficult for film makers to find a niche that has not already been mined to death. Up to the plate steps director Tak Sakaguchi’s “Samurai Zombie”, a Japanese splatter movie whose title certainly catches the imagination. Zombies normally rely on strength in numbers, but a samurai zombie is potentially a one-creature army!

The film’s plot centres on the terrible misfortunes of a family, some unhinged criminals and a couple of daft coppers who collectively wander into a foggy, cursed village with a dark, blood-soaked past. Seventy years ago, eight people were slaughtered and beheaded here, and it seems that history might be about to repeat itself. A armoured, katana-slashing zombie is on the loose, and he will not rest until everyone is dead.