As zombie apocalypse The Last of Us stalks TV land, there’s a key question on all fans’ mind.
How can I be like the series’ heroes Joel and Ellie and avoid becoming one of the undead?
The advice seems to be head East. In fact, says a study, the only way is Essex for your best chance of survival.
The quaint countryside around the district of Uttlesford, near where TV chef Jamie Oliver grew up, has been ranked Britain’s safest place to be in a zombie apocalypse.
It is believed remote farmhouses, abundant food supplies and road links would maximise the chances to stay alive.
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Rentola, a renting platform, carried out the crucial research. It has released its chilling finding as HBO’s compelling series, starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey and based on a video game, really hots up.
Locals in the upmarket town of Great Dunmow in Uttlesford were bolstered by the news. “Knowing we’re the safest place offers me some comfort,” said Mark Ropkins, 52, who played a zombie in a low-budget apocalypse film in 2018.
He said: “I might paint myself grey and join them. I can feed off my acting experience – it could be a new lease of life for me.”
The town’s butcher Tim Strange, 51, sharpened his meat cleaver as he discussed his plan. He said: “We’ve got knife skills here, zombies don’t know that, so we could deal with it.”
Retired postman Peter Wigg, 63, inspired by 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, said: “I’d lock the doors to the pub, have some beers, then use the snooker cues and darts as weapons to attack the zombies.”
Tree surgeon Bill Smith, 28, would build a team of survivors to fight and said: “I’d stay here in Great Dunmow if zombies came – I’d still want to sleep in my own bed.”
Things are less rosy for people in Craven, North Yorks. It is ranked the worst place to be in a zombie apocalypse.
It’s among the most sparsely populated areas in England with just 44 people per 100 hectare patch of land.
Tucked in the Yorkshire Dales with its waterfalls and caves, it would be too remote for any chance of surviving.
Louise Deveraux, 48, a CSI officer from Craven, said: “It’s scary to find out it’s the most dangerous place. We have really low crime here so it’s weird to find out it would be unsafe in an apocalypse. I’d be vastly unprepared, so would most others.”
After Uttlesford, the best places to survive are Crawley, West Sussex, followed by Folkestone and Hythe in Kent.
Best places in the UK to survive a zombie apocalypse include: Uttlesford, Essex Crawley, West Sussex Folkstone and Hythe, Kent Thurrock, Essex West Suffolk Lincoln Swale, Kent Somerset West and Taunton Harborough, Leics North East Lincolnshire.
Worst places include: Craven, North Yorkshire Fylde, Lancashire Ribble Valley, Lancashire Staffordshire Moorlands South Kesteven, Lincs Cornwall Allerdale, Cumbria Rochford, Essex Oadby and Wigston, Leics Kingston upon Thames, London.
