Pretty good, actually

The promotional material for Strike Back looks all militaristic, kind of Iraqy, and quite modern computery.

You know; pictures of handsome young soldiers with enormous guns striding through the desert in those desert camouflage get-ups, being all Albert Camus, and killing an Arab.

Instead of normal computer screens, they have those great big screens with technology that probably hasn't been invented yet.

Also, you know Iraq is going to get a mention, and you're up for a film like Green Zone or The Hurt Locker, and you struggle with your political views at the same time as trying to enjoy the movie. All those things are inclined to put the more refined viewer - definitely me, and probably you - off.

Strike Back looks like all that, but there is one major difference, a difference I did not pick up until I pressed "play", and realised all the accents were from the UK.

So this is a UK version, and it's not a film, it's actually a television series, starting on Prime on Thursday July 7, at 8.30pm.

Maybe it shouldn't, but being a UK show somehow made a difference to how I felt about it.

Strike Back thrusts the viewer straight into the action.

It is March 18, in the Persian Gulf, 24 hours before the invasion of Iraq, and a bunch of troops are getting ready for some sort of special operation, making those click-clack noises with their guns, and strapping stuff on with velcro.

They all pile into a helicopter, with music from some cool 1990s Britpop band playing in the background, and fly into Basra to rescue a hostage, an English fellow high up in some sort of arms and ammunition company.

It is gripping, actually.

There is lots of running up and down stairs, people with guns, grenades and bombs, suicide bombers, and Republican guards.

But things go wrong.

Our hero, John Porter (Richard Armitage), is just too damned nice, and instead of killing a child with a suicide bomb, he disarms him and knocks him out.

The boy comes round, and shoots dead two of the British troops, so despite saving the hostage, the mission is dubbed a failure and Porter is discharged from the army.

Skip to 2010, and Porter's offsider in the mission, Hugh Collinson (Andrew Lincoln) is part of MI6, and when a British reporter is kidnapped in Basra, Porter is brought back.

Can he save her, save the day, save England, and, perhaps, even save himself?I don't know, actually, but I'm guessing he will.

Strike Back appears to fit squarely in the silly but fun category.

Andrew Lincoln is good.

He was in This Life, which was good, Teachers, which was good, and Love Actually.

The series does lay on the gung ho too thick, and places the moral ambiguity of the conflict, through historic media coverage, clearly on centre stage.

Enjoy Strike Back. It's a guilty pleasure.