The media sees the internet as the new rock'n'roll - sexy, sassy and chic - but, asks Digital Media Manager HOWARD DAVIS, does it make good TV?

The internet is cool at the moment: modern, youth oriented, and totally beyond the average bloke on the street.

But, how do you translate this onto the small screen, when the internet itself is actually ephemeral, boring and insular (not exactly good TV)?

Who wants to be an e-millionaire, whilst being an interesting curio, failed to set hearts racing, and made Jon Snow look like Denise Van Outen. Snazzy suits and a self-important theme tune could not save what was basically Joe Public presenting ill-conceived board reports.

What Big Brother taught us, and what the BBC seem to have realised with its new dot.com drama Attachments, is the interest and the excitement lies, as with all good drama, with the characters.

Think of War Games. The real tension there was between Matthew Broderick's eminently likeable outsider and the two other main protagonists: the quirky love interest and the disillusioned ex-programmer. Tony Garnett's World Productions, responsible for Attachments, also gave us This Life and Cops which, if the media frenzy surrounding both of these shows is anything to go on, stands the new drama in good stead.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy either of these shows. This Life seemed to me to be populated by utterly dislikable characters, all in need of a good slap for constantly bemoaning their opulent life styles and then jumping into bed next to anything with a pulse.

Cops, whilst filmed in my home town (sunny Bolton), seemed a touch too contrived. Good drama, to me, is not about exaggeration, and everything in Cops seems to be a caricature.

Attachments tries a little harder in showing the reality of starting up an internet business, but the writers have used unimaginative stereotypes to add dramatic impetus. The characters would have been better introduced to us if they wore badges specifying their predominant personality trait. Granted, this allows the average viewer easy access into a world they may know little about via immediately recognisable characters, but the use of a phallus within the first five minutes of the first episode smacks of desperation. Incidentally, the first episode only managed a seven per cent audience share (1.4 million), suffering the ignominy of being beaten by Peak Practice with 34 per cent (7.5 million).

The sad fact of the matter is that the internet makes boring TV. Look at the short lived dot.comedy. No amount of fluttering eyelashes from the diminutive Ms Porter could save that abomination.

All this said, the BBC should be applauded in its constant striving to provide up-to-date and relevant drama.

The one thing that Attachments shows the rest of the populous not swanning about in cyber-space is that most net-heads need to realise that the internet is not the be all and end all of existence.

Incidentally, the web site set up in Attachments can also be viewed on-line at www.seethru.co.uk. But be warned, this site is not for the easily offended. The Beeb has either managed a true creative coup in producing a site that their characters would most likely produce, or they've just completely missed the Yoof culture mark yet again.