When everyman Ed Morris meets a femme fatale synthetic woman, he risks losing his job, wife and pipedream of getting away to the oceans.

Director Marc Munden’s version of Philip K. Dick’s is probably the most bonkers instalment to date in the anthology series based on the author’s short stories. Pig-human security guards, sheep with human faces (I bet that androids don’t dream about these ones!) and modular eco-pods hanging off the edge of crumbling cliffs – there’s no shortage of grand ideas here.

Writer Tony Grisoni is currently working on a BBC adaptation of China Mieville’s The City and the City, and one assumes that he will stick closer to the source material than here, as only at a stretch could you say that the story has vaguely been inspired by the PKD original, Sales Pitch. The story appeared as Sales Pitch in Future Science Fiction in 1954 and followed commuter Ed who is fed up with his interplanetary daily journey, wanting to escape to the stars. That plot point is all that’s survived in this fun adaptation that is Earth-bound and focuses more on Ed’s seduction by the mysterious synthetic. The thrust of Ed snapping after being cold-called and incessantly harassed by sales robots is also jettisoned.

Steve Buscemi is of course excellent as Ed – his career has been dominated by these put-upon losers, supported in an uncharacteristically straight role by Nighty Night’s Julia Davis as his wife. Sidse Babett Knudsen (Westworld) is wonderful as the artificial lady in red (what else?) seductress who knows that her limited life-span is coming to an end and wants scientist Ed to get her a second lease of life. While not part of the original story, it’s a theme that’s in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – self-awareness and artificial sentience are recurring themes in his work.

There’s a lot going on, from Joanna Scanlan’s piggy security guard (barely recognisable under the snout), Lucian Msamati as an obviously villainous boss and Michael Socha as leader of some 80s punk/Lost Boys scoundrels.

Verdict: Maybe a bit too broad and out there for many, this enjoyable segment sits at the fanciful end of the PKD spectrum and still has something to say about consumerism and the environment. 7/10

Nick Joy