Aussie cult series The Secret Life of Us may be well known to those who requent the night-time schedules, but what other gems are lurking in the TV times when most of us are tucked up in bed?

For many, The Secret Life Of Us remains just that - a secret. Like many a TV show that's achieved cult status, the series is not always readily available on the box.

The audience has to seek it out by scouring the listings. Finding it resembles a game of hide and seek as viewers wonder where their favourite programme will show up this week. This one is always in the same place - Channel 4 - but rarely at the same time, and usually at an hour when most people are tucked up snugly in bed.

The Secret Life Of Us has been described in the handout as "a triumph of love, heartache and vodka shots" and by one critic as "a heady mix of This Life, Friends and Sex And The City". But the moral dilemmas and crises facing eight Melbourne twentysomethings are not considered good enough to grace the peaktime schedules on a regular basis.

Despite that, the friends' quest for love, sex, romance, money and happiness has acquired a cult following in the UK.

Elevation to cult status can happen to any TV show. Many old series, especially those populated by puppets with clearly visible strings, have acquired a fanatical following.

These are essentially daytime shows. The Secret Life Of Us belongs to those who frequent the night-time schedules, slipped in among the BBC3 and BBC4 transfers, signed repeats, Open University programmes, re-runs of documentaries and sci-fi series, and sex shows.

Late night delights in the coming week include US drama series (The District, La Femme Nikita) and US comedy shows (That 70s Show, For Your Love, The Norm Show). The schedulers know they have only limited appeal, but nonetheless they provide a cheap way of filling the overnight schedules.

Some of the best films are to be found at an hour when only Dracula is up and about. The Charles Laughton-directed thriller The Night Of The Hunter is being screened at 2.55am. The Laurence Oliver drama Term Of Trial shows up at 2.35am. All a bit annoying when peaktime movies include such forgettable films as Escape To Victory, featuring Sylvester Stallone in goal during a wartime soccer match, and a creaky thriller Double Jeopardy.

The 1990 Chopper Chicks In Zombietown (Monday, 1.10am, C4 in case you want to put it in your diary) combines two late night/early morning favourites - horror and sex.

The title is interesting but five wins the prize for smuttiest title of the week with Shaving Ryan's Privates, a documentary about porn directors who remake classic movies in their own style. This is a game you can play at home or in the car - thinking of porn versions of the titles of hit movies. Just don't play within earshot of the children.

Mind you, anything is preferable to watching a repeat of Today With Des And Mel, 45 minutes of embarrassing conversation repeated from the afternoon.

You might even come across a failed peaktime drama relegated to a late slot. The new medical drama Sweet Medicine and Martin Kemp's London gangster series Family can both be found in 11.30pm slots. They might even become cult viewing at their hour, despite losing viewers rapidly in their previous peaktime slot.

When ITV bought the new Dragnet series from the US, it was screened in a late-night slot. And the tough and uncompromising cable series Oz, which is set in a men's prison where violence and bad language are rife, also gathered a cult following in the midnight hour.

Things could change now that ITV has got permission to move the News At Ten to 10.30pm. There seems to be a mood to make the schedules stronger after the news. A series like The Secret Life Of Us would be ideal to take viewers up to midnight.

The good news is that these days the wishes of the TV schedulers to keep such series invisible are being thwarted by the new-fangled technology of video and DVD.

The Secret Life Of Us is the latest series to be released, enabling people to relive their favourite moments or even see them for the first tim,e if the C4 screenings were past their bedtime and they didn't have the skills to programme the video recorder.

* The Secret Life Of Us is available to buy now on Channel 4 video (two box sets, £22.99 each) and DVD (two box sets £29.99 each).

Published: 01/11/2003