In an easily imaginable parallel universe New Labour reintroduced the death penalty for murderers and child rapists in 2005. Its first victim was convicted paedophile and 70s musician Gary Glitter. Travellers from this parallel universe took control of Channel 4 and screened a documentary about it tonight.

Observer journalists and former Sun ranters took their chance for a few degrading minutes of TV exposure and were intercut with actors in the docudrama format. Right wing Tory and occasional reality TV star Anne Widdecombe was there too. She was probably serious when she insisted that evil exists and there’d be a lot less of it around if more people were hanged.  Only Hilton McRae emerged with any credit from ninety minutes of undiluted oddness. He did a first class job of depicting the singer’s unstable, exuberant creepiness and represented him as an isolated, unrepentant, unsupportable pariah who collapses in tears reading his final statement. Which is probably what would happen.

To the extent that the programme had a thesis it was that majority opinion in Britain has had its wish granted and capital punishment has been restored. The one thing that it did well was to present what the death penalty in the 21st century might look like. The only real changes are that the judge no longer says “and may God have mercy on your soul”; the condemned prisoner has to wear a bright orange jump suit, in a Guantanamo stylee and the hangman is now a “hanging technician”. The tradtional rope and drop are unchanged.

Wrestling with the surrealism of the whole thing is made no easier by the specially commissioned piece of music shown as the executioners walk towards the cell and Glitter cracks up. Imagine a cheapo drum and bass backing track with clips of Gary Glitter orating from the dock. Not easy, is it?

Denied any dignity even at the end the script’s last words for its anti-hero are; “This isn’t happening. It’s gotta be a wind up.”

In what can only have been a wilful attempt to make the whole farrago even more bizarre and meaningless than it already was, the impact of the voiceover during the closing credits inviting viewers to join a discussion of the issues was slightly reduced by the spectre of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s ugly mug grinning across the right half of the screen.

Not even Jack Straw or the Tories have mooted bringing back the death penalty in recent years. The topic is a complete non-debate in Europe and you can only wonder to what degree Colombian marching powder influenced the commissioning and broadcasting of one of the oddest bits of television you’re ever likely to see.

The only bit of good news for Glitter in the whole thing was that he would have picked up a few quid in song royalties now that his work now goes unheard.