In 24, Jack Bauer has managed to successfully battle presidential assassinations, nuclear bombs and wild cougars over the years – but latter seasons have left audiences less than gripped.

Season 7 sets to bring back what made the show unmissable – and it’s the best season so far.

If you are unfamiliar with 24, then there isn’t too much to catch up on. We have an ex-CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) member named Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) shouting, punching, torturing and nipple-pinching his way to the truth in a long line of national disasters.

This season actually rounds Jack off into a conflicted hero, taking breaks between all that shouting and fighting to reflect on his controversial efforts. Shining a light on these ways is the FBI, with whom Jack is working. He partners up with Agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching) and the two make a good cop/ bad cop/ melodramatic self-reflective cop partnership. In fact, the series takes a refreshing look at Jack’s battle with his inner demons, making for a more character-driven show than previous seasons.

That doesn’t detract from the action, though. Jack is soon confronted by his previously dead colleague who has taken a buzz cut and a lesson in villainous snarling. Suffice to say that it’s an exciting start and one that sets us up for an unrelenting day.

The pace of the season becomes breathless. Constant twists and turns – sometimes bordering on the absurd – prevent lags, packing in a video store full of thriller-like plotlines and set-pieces into each 45-minute episode. The show does demand some suspension of disbelief, as the trail of deceit begins to run so long that it starts to loop back round on itself. Although a negative point, it can also be positive – it contributes to the exhilarating and action-packed season, and stops it becoming complacent.

Swapping the LA setting of previous outings for Washington DC also helps. This gives the banter between the president and Bauer a greater sense of urgency as the White House becomes part of the landscape being targeted. It also helps to maintain relationships between the politicians, FBI and Jack  – this show has always been as much about the bureaucrats as it has popping caps.

This is a deeper story than before, constantly evolving. After one piece of the puzzle falls into place, another ten pieces appear. But that’s why we love it. This season stands out – not just for being the most action-packed and narratively labyrinthine, but for the effort put into the characters. Bauer has always been a hero, a patriot wearing the flag, but this season takes the premise we know and explores the conflicted morality of a man facing the frontline.

Invigorating, refreshing and unmissable, Bauer is back with the best 24 hours you’ll ever spend with him.

24 Season 7 is out on DVD and Blu-ray now. DVD & Blu-ray Special Features include 14 Deleted Scenes, UK created featurette – ‘24 in 24’ (not on US version) behind the scenes footage, production details and 12 Audio Commentaries.

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Getting headbutted by Kiefer Sutherland would be amazing – it’d be like Rembrandt painting you a picture.

Because Kiefer is a master headbutter. Sure, it’d be better if he tied you to a chair, put your feet in a bucket of water and electrocuted you with a cable torn from a standard lamp but that’s hardly practical on a day-to-day basis. No, Kiefer Sutherland’s headbutt is the perfect expression of form and content.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office realises this, so it won’t be prosecuting Kiefer Sutherland for allegedly headbutting that guy back in May. What a heartwarming story. About headbutts.

You’ll remember the incident a couple of months ago when Kiefer Sutherland allegedly headbutted fashion designer Jack McCullough for barging into Brooke Shields at a party. Specifically you’ll remember it because the close proximity of the words ‘Kiefer Sutherland’ and ‘Brooke Shields’ in a news story made you think that you’d travelled back in time to the 1980s, and you got nervous because it meant that Corey Haim would be famous again.

Well, back then things looked pretty dicey for Kiefer Sutherland. He was charged for the incident and, thanks to his ongoing parole following his DUI conviction in 2007, there’s a very good chance that Kiefer Sutherland would have found himself back in jail if he was found guilty.

But the good news is that Kiefer Sutherland won’t be found guilty of anything because the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has decided not to prosecute him. People reports:

“We declined to prosecute after a full investigation,” Manhattan District Attorney spokeswoman Alicia Maxey Greene tells PEOPLE of the highly publicized alleged cranial collision with a New York fashion designer in May. “That included speaking to the complaining witness, who was quite uncooperative.”

Why was Jack McCullough being so uncooperative about prosecuting Kiefer Sutherland? There are a number of options:

1 – He realised that Kiefer Sutherland was only acting to protect the honour of a woman, which gave the incident a moral integrity that he couldn’t defend himself against.

2 - He made up with Kiefer Sutherland shortly after the incident and they both released a joint statement apologising to each other.

3 - He realised that being headbutted by Kiefer Sutherland would mean that he’d never have to pay for another drink ever again, and when he looks back at his life he’ll see that it was easily the coolest thing that had ever happened to him.

4 - He was uncooperative because Kiefer Sutherland had pinned him to a sofa and threatened to gouge his eyes out with a biro while muttering “I’m gonna enjoy this” in a slightly irresponsible way.

Any of these could feasibly be true. Especially the second one because that’s what happened, but any of them could feasibly be true.

Sadly, this is bad news for 24. Had he been convicted, Kiefer Sutherland was planning to set season eight in the world of fashion, where he’d spend 24 heart-pounding hours running up and down a catwalk shooting hundreds of fashion designers in the face. But now he’s not even going to be prosecuted, he’ll probably just go back to beating up brown people again.

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Kiefer Sutherland isn’t Jack Bauer. Hard to believe, we know, but they’re different in just about every way.

Jack Bauer, for instance, breaks the law in all sorts of spectacular ways to save America from terrorists then gets pardoned by the president afterwards. Kiefer Sutherland, on the other hand, commits petty crimes to save 1980s actresses then gets charged afterwards.

Kiefer Sutherland has been charged with minor assault following his alleged headbutting incident this week. Sad – we wanted to see how far he’d take this hobby. Maybe he’d end up shoplifting a Chunky Kit Kat for Molly Ringwald or something.

At least now we all know where the eighth season of 24 will be set – the studio of America’s Next Top Model. It makes so much sense – Kiefer Sutherland wouldn’t have to fake his rage for the fashion industry, plus we get the impression that the sight of Tyra Banks tied to a chair getting her kneecaps shattered while electrodes dangle from her nipples might be something of a ratings winner.

That’s provided that Kiefer Sutherland’s intense hatred of fashion designers doesn’t land him in jail for the rest of his life, of course – after allegedly headbutting Jack McCollough at a party to protect the honour of Brooke Shields this week, his future looks uncertain. Especially now that he’s been charged with assault, as Reuters reports:

Actor Kiefer Sutherland turned himself into police on Thursday and was arrested and charged with assault for headbutting another man at a swank party in New York City. The star of the hit television show “24″ was questioned by police at a station in the Manhattan neighborhood of Soho and faces a minor assault charge, according to a police spokeswoman.

Normally a charge of minor assault wouldn’t carry much of a punishment, but don’t forget this is Kiefer Sutherland we’re talking about – he’s previously been arrested so many times that headbutting McCollough probably violates the terms of about 75 different probations. This basically leaves a judge with two options. If Kiefer Sutherland is convicted then he can either be sent to prison immediately or let out onto the street where he’ll get shitfaced within a couple of minutes, start a fight with his own reflection, get rearrested and then go to prison.

But still, at least now he’s been charged, Kiefer Sutherland has set himself up for one of the greatest courtroom battles in recent history. It’s going to be amazing – Kiefer will get to do his gritty “I did what I did because I needed to” shtick, Jack McCollough will get to fake terror every time that Kiefer so much as flinches – plus all the witnesses were at a party with Brooke Shields and Kiefer Sutherland, so they’re bound to be a bunch of terrifically obnoxious nimrods.

A word of advice, though, Kiefer – tell the court that you had to headbutt Jack McCollough yourself because if Brooke Shields tried it she’d have suffocated him with her giant eyebrows and killed him. If anything, you were helping him out.

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As the star of 24, Kiefer Sutherland knows a bit about the law. For instance, it’s completely OK to suffocate your brother to death.

Also, the good guys are always bad, and the bad guys are always good. And never trust the brown ones. So when Kiefer Sutherland allegedly headbutted Jack McCollough on Tuesday, it made him a bad guy. But then again, Kiefer Sutherland was protecting the honour of Brooke Shields – so he’s a good guy.

Then again, he’ll probably spend a few more months in jail for it. So he’s bad. Or good. Oh, let’s just settle on depressing.

Look, we know the 1980s are back in fashion and all, but let’s not take the piss, eh? Strutting around in ironically-coloured Wayfarers is one thing, but having to read a news story about Kiefer Sutherland headbutting someone in a fight over Brooke Shields seems a little bit like overkill. From there it’s only a short skip to sniffing glue while critically evaluating the Masters Of The Universe film to the sound of Sydney Youngblood and, trust us, that’s not something you’d want to do.

But anyway, that’s what apparently happened. In a non-ironic way, Kiefer Sutherland allegedly headbutted a fashion designer in the face because he didn’t show the proper courtesy to Brooke Shields. And now he’s probably going back to jail for it.

You may remember that Kiefer Sutherland spent Christmas 2007 in jail after he was arrested for DUI. The sentence was so harsh because his DUI arrest violated the probation he was put on after he was arrested for DUI in 2004. After his jail sentence, Kiefer was place on a new five-year probation. And apparently, as People reports, headbutting a man in the face at a party while possibly drunk might just violate the terms of that probation, too:

“If Sutherland’s found in violation of probation for battery, and if he was intoxicated at the time, he could very well be sentenced to another 48 days or more,” says Steve Sitkoff, an L.A. criminal defense attorney not involved with the case. The 24 star, who allegedly headbutted a fashion designer at a party early Tuesday, will surrender to New York authorities to face a third-degree assault charge.

Obviously another jail sentence for Kiefer Sutherland would bugger 24 up something rotten. There probably won’t be another conveniently-timed writers’ strike to delay a new season this time. So maybe it’s time the producers thought of a plan-B workaround. Say, for instance, the president of America gets arrested for shoplifting a frozen chicken, and Jack Bauer has to headbutt an effeminate man in the face to go to jail to protect her. Or Kim Bauer comes back again and fights the forces of evil on her dad’s behalf. In a skimpy top. In the rain. In slow motion. Yes, that would work.

But whatever happens to Kiefer Sutherland, the moral of the story is clear – never help Brooke Shields. Never. You’ll go to prison if you do. Don’t be fooled by those gigantic eyebrows or the way she’s not as good as she thinks she is at anything. You must never help Brooke Shields. Not even if she falls over in front of hundreds of stampeding hippos. Especially not then.

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As anyone who has ever seen 24, Lost Boys or his mugshot already knows – Kiefer Sutherland is tougher than a t-rex’s calcified colon.

Sure, he likes talking about little baby ponies a little more that your typical hero, and he refers to his favourite shirt as the ‘one covered in speckled rainbow,’ but aside from that he has got what it takes to save people’s lives. On TV.

Also sometimes he awkwardly intervenes on behalf of distressed damsels in real life too. For instance, he recently came to the aide of an ‘assaulted’ Brooke Shields.

When Kiefer Sutherland gets out of jail, he usually likes to wait several months until he gets in the news for anything else. Check. Also, he likes to star in television programmes that used to be action-packed dramas but have begun to resemble the sixth season of Friends more and more with each passing episode. Check.

Since both of those are obvious truths, you may be wondering when the first one mentioned is due to blossom. The answer is now. You see, Kiefer has been good friends with Brooke Shields ever since he held up her big saggy face long enough for for her to syringe it full of Botox. Seriously – you should see the before & afters.

We made up the Botox thing. We also made up the ‘they’re good friends’ thing. Although according to TMZ that may be true anyway:

“Law enforcement sources tell us Kiefer Sutherland headbutted a man in New York City last night, causing lacerations on the man’s nose — all while defending the honor of one Brooke Shields.

“It happened at an after-party for the Met costume gala last night. We’re told witnesses say the alleged victim — Jack McCullough — allegedly knocked Brooke Shields over and Kiefer saw it happen. The witnesses say Kiefer went over to the man and told him to apologize to her. At that point they say McCullough pushed Kiefer and the actor responded with a headbutt.”

When asked later about why he felt obligated to defend Brooke he said simply:

“Brooke Shields is my [sic] insperation to act. When I first saw her in that movie, uh…what’s it [sic] caled…uh, escape to blue island or something? Well it changed my life. In the scene where she first made [sic] luv to that curly-haired rapscallion and her eyes were so full of convincing passion, I thought to myself Yes! Yes – this is what I want to do with my life.”

We assume Kiefer was talking about wanting to act for the rest of his life as opposed to make love to rapscallions. You really never know though. We also assume most of that quote was fabricated – those [sic]s were some nice touches, eh? We threw those in to really drive it home.

Anyhow – Sutherland totally headbutted some guy who wouldn’t apologise for callously slamming into Brooke Shields and sending her tumbling into a table covered in stillborns, live salamanders, broccoli and whatever else celebrities like to snack on at those ritzy fashion shows. This could cause a problem as, like we said, he didn’t get released from jail that long ago, and all the probation hearings we’ve ever attended (we’ve been to six. Two of them ours) have grand high counsels that really frown on violent assaults no matter what the cause.

That’s just something to keep in mind, Kief, in case you ever see an old lady intentionally trip Kathy Ireland.

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9 – How to sleep better (unwritten lesson – stop watching YouTube videos of octopuses, because you know they’ll only scare you) – Toiletpaperentrepreneur

8 – Kiefer Sutherland, smart or casual? YOU DECIDE – Popsugar

7 - That bloody Jesus, he’s everywhere - I Am Bored

6 - Want to build a granite fireplace? OK! - Instructables

5 - A Korean draws lots of English things - Flickr

4 - Sexy action figures. No, we’re not making this list up - Manofest

3 - Do you work with people? Does your computer have sound? They’ll love this - Najle

2 - Oh, go on then, here’s a gallery of horrific tumours – Oddee

1 - Once again, a gold star to the Japanese…

We’ve got a few months left before the seventh season of 24 kicks off, but we’ve just been handed the very first sliver of a hint of a taste of what it’ll be like – a work print of the trailer for the Africa-set 24 season seven preview, 24: Exile.

So what’s it like? Is 24 back to its logic-defying, pedal-to-the-metal best? Or does it look like it’ll be another one of those seasons where Jack Bauer kicks his heroin addiction in 45 minutes and people get terrorised by mountain lions a lot? We’ve got the 24 preview trailer after the jump for you to make up your own mind, but here’s a hint – it’s not great.

You know that a show’s reached its absolute nadir when it shows a nuclear bomb going off in a major city at breakfast and everyone’s forgotten about it by lunchtime, don’t you? Or when the big baddie is the farmer out of Babe leaping around an oil rig like a marionette puppet from a German expressionist horror film.

Not coincidentally, the last season of 24 had both of those, plus a nurse from Scrubs being blinded on a beach by a bomb. It was rubbish. And it hasn’t helped that the new season of 24 has been so long in the waiting – held back by writers’ strikes and jail sentences – that anything less than total magnificence will be greeted with abuse from all quarters.

The new season of 24 needs to work. Not just for us, but for Kiefer Sutherland too – look at the trailer for his new movie Mirrors. It’s a creepy Asian-style horror film, but Kiefer’s wedged so tightly into the Jack Bauer groove that you get the feeling he’ll be tying the mirror-ghouls to a chair, sitting them in a bucket of water and electrocuting them with torn-out wires from a standard lamp until they tell him where the bomb is by the third act.

So, with that in mind, here’s the work print of the preview trailer for 24’s season seven preview – the two-hour 24: Exile. Although it’s just a work print, and shouldn’t be seen as a precise indication of what’s to come, we’ve still managed to glean a handful of tasty plot secrets from it. For instance:

*Season seven of 24 is set in a future where a woman can’t just be elected as president of America, but a woman who appears to be suffering from some sort of alarming face-bloat that’s possibly down to a severe food allergy. That’s progress.

*Jack Bauer wanted to go on holiday to escape his troubles, so he went to a volatile African country torn apart by civil war. From this we can deduce that Jack Bauer is an idiot and probably would have been better off going to the Isle Of Wight or something.

*Jack Bauer gets his face burnt off by a knife – a serious injury that we’re guessing will completely heal in about an hour and a half.

*Jack Bauer shoots a little boy in the face! Probably!

*Now that he’s ripped off Rambo as well as Die Hard, we can look forward to season eight of 24 where Jack Bauer rips off the last third of the Planet Hollywood action hero trio and becomes a destruction-fixated robot from the future. Or a pregnant man. But definitely one of those things.

OK, enough teasing – here’s the real 24 trailer…

So, what do you think? We’d love to know where you stand on this. Are we just setting ourselves up for disappointment by being so excited by the prospect of new 24? We are, aren’t we? We obviously are. It’s going to be rubbish. Jesus, we’re idiots.

And why we shall never know. But, we do know that we can never forgive you. We will never look at you in the same way. For you are to direct the musical poo poo that is The Feeling in their next video. Say it ain’t so, Keef. Say it ain’t so. This is disgusting. We want to puke up our innards and then eat them just so we can puke them up again.

“Frontman Dan Gillespie-Sells revealed to The Sun that the 24 star is a fan of theirs, and gets where the band "are coming from". He added: "We make time for each other and whenever he comes to London we meet for a drink."

He gets where they’re coming from? What? London? Even if he told us to come and fill his little world right up with nonsense it couldn’t be possible to make more non-sense.

This really is frightening. Kiefer has joined the dark side, people. He is Darth Vader and The Feeling are the stormtroopers. Perhaps his father, Donald Sutherland, ironically the Luke Skywalker of this analogy, will come to our aid. He’s obviously been at the drugs again, D. Please sort him out. Bring him back to rational thought like some sort of fucked-up scene from Flatliners. Give him a nice hard slap and put Blonde on Blonde back on his iPod, for fuck’s sake.

Seriously, kids, adults tell you to stay away from drugs for a good fucking reason. You might end up agreeing to direct a no talent, annoying as fuck, idiot, no purpose for existing, twatty, moribund band like The Feeling. Please take heed. Please listen to FRANK.

We at hecklerspray have never prayed to Jesus before. But tonight we shall. Tonight we shall.

Read more:

Kiefer Sutherland To Direct Feeling Video? – Clickmusic

Remember when main character Jack Bauer became hopelessly addicted to heroin and ended a series crying in utter self-loathing? Boy, that was a chuckle and a half. And that bit when a supermarket full of people were told that they were all going to die from a hideous new virus, and that the best way out was to swallow the cyanide pills that were being handed around? Fun, fun, fun.

Anyone who shares these sentiments may want to shed a tear, however, because it looks like – after seven-and-a-bit years of boss-killing, suspect-beheading, nuclear-bomb-crashing and whispering in a hushed grimace – 24 co-creator Joel Surnow reckons that he's taken the acting skills of Kiefer Sutherland roughly about as far as he can.

This isn't the first disaster to befall 24 of late. Season Six was generally seen as a letdown – far from the overblown, post-pub perfection of the earlier runs, the show was now beginning to recycle itself in the most boring of ways, and not even the fiery extermination of a sizeable chunk of Los Angeles could distract from this. Furthermore, the recent writers' strike has seen production grind to a halt – and if no-one's around to scribble down 34 "Dammit Chloe"s an hour, then there ain't no televisual realtime fun to be had.

Still. Fox TV have taken the whole thing well:

"Joel created one of the landmark series of this decade in 24 and his contribution to its creative excellence over the years has been immeasurable. While he leaves the show in the incredibly capable hands of the talented Howard Gordon, his input will always be welcome."

The reason they're being so civil? Obvious – with the main creative force behind the show gone, the networks can now finally make the version of 24 that they really want to see. So expect an all-new action packed season relaunch called 24: Extreme, in which Kiefer literally grows to 70 feet tall when angry and hisses out terrorist-baiting threats with such force that evil gangs in warehouses shiver the nation over.

We hope for his sake that Surnow didn't leave any killer plot ideas with the network, though. Now he's left, they're almost certain to be Fox property, and chances are he won't get a penny if they're implemented. And – trust us – that sort of creative theft can be annoying. Almost as annoying as if another high-profile Entertainment News site saw how well your 'betting odds' features were doing, and decided to nick it for themselves.

Tsk.

Read More:

Time Is Up for 24 Creator Joel Surnow – TV Guide

At any rate, the answer is 14 minutes. 14 minutes every three days, in fact. We know because that’s how long Donald Sutherland says he was allowed to talk to his son Kiefer Sutherland when Kiefer was in the slammer for drunkity driving all around town.  

Despite the fact that when you say his first name it creates all of the ugliest sounds in the English language in about a second, we admire Kiefer Sutherland. It’s not easy to go from being a platinum blond vampire in Lost Boys, to a Julia Roberts reject to a… well, a nothing for a long time. But the guy came back kicking butts and taking names as Jack “Give Me a Name” Bauer in the smash TV series, 24. A show that makes men everywhere put down their Wii nunchuck and stand up and proclaim that they too can save the world from daily threats of nuclear attack with a constantly gruff voice and clingy sweater shirts. And they can do it all in real time TV, too. Good on ya, Kiefer.   

But we were reminded all too rudely that even our beloved heroes crack under the pressure when Kiefer Sutherland was arrested last September for DUI. Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced to a 48-day prison stay which he served in full, making him the world-record holder for the largest portion of a celebrity prison sentence served ever, and he is no doubt is awaiting gracious loser phone calls from Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie any day now.   

However, Kiefer Sutherland wasn’t the only one affected by his prison stay. Keifer’s dad, Donald Sutherland, revealed in a recent interview that he didn’t get much time to swap gossip with his son:  

"I spoke to him on every third day. I'd make a deposit at the jail and then when he has the chance he can call collect and you speak for 14 minutes, that's your limit and then the phone goes dead… I never knew when the phonecall would come and it would be this recording of some woman in the police system and you'd blurt out everything in 14 minutes."

So, Donald Sutherland had 14 minutes to tell his son that he’s still a creepy looking old man that makes us reflexively check that our children are safe when we see him, and Kiefer only had time to fill dad in on… well, to be honest there probably wasn’t much of anything exciting for him to tell his dad. Except maybe about advancements in shiv art and hallucinations induced by confinement in which he’s a drag queen on stilts accepting the Grammy for best new rap album, but that’s about it, really.   

Donald Sutherland also says that his son's jail spell really killed the holly jolly fun of Christmas for him and his family. Yeah, Kiefer Sutherland should think about that the next time you decide to drive all drunk and such. Maybe he should think ‘this maybe will ruin Christmas for my family. Better take a cab’. While he’s at it he may also want to think 'hey, I am endangering not only my life, here, but those of innocent people around me', but that’s just a suggestion. 

Okay, okay. We all make mistakes, and hopefully people take responsibility for them like Kiefer has. Donald Sutherland seems to feel that this experience has helped his sometimes troubled son to sort things out: 

"He's not a mellow guy… but he's a growing man and he had 48 days to think. He was in solitary confinement in Glendale jail." 

Making us all feel more than a tad perplexed as we wonder at what point a forty-something year old man is considered to be fully grown.   

Read more: 

14 MINUTE CALLS MADE CHRISTMAS LIKE A 24 EPISODE FOR SUTHERLAND – PR Inside

Kiefer Sutherland was released from jail just a few hours ago, having served all 48 of his 48-day sentence for DUI. And, now he's out, Kiefer Sutherland gets to wear his 'full sentence served' badge like a war medal around his prematurely-released ex-con celebrity counterparts.

Obviously the only celebrity other than Kiefer Sutherland to serve their full sentence recently was Paris Hilton. We think this means that Kiefer will end up painted gold in a desert for a canned champagne advert soon or something.

Perhaps the worst casualty of the writers' strike is us. Forget the sacked below-the-line crew members and the striking writers themselves, thanks to the strike the new season of 24 has been indefinitely postponed. And it looked like Tony Almeida was going to be the baddie, too. The bastards.

But, still, at least Kiefer Sutherland found something to keep his mind occupied during the strike – he went to jail. After his DUI arrest in September, roughly his billionth drink-driving arrest in the last couple of years or so, Kiefer Sutherland found himself looking at a 48-day jail sentence.

But while the majority of celebrity jail sentences last for three and a half seconds to make sure that they can't collate enough material to write their cash-in prison diaries, Kiefer Sutherland spent the whole sentence banged up. And in doing so, Kiefer managed to spend his birthday in jail, Christmas day in jail, the new year in jail and – perhaps most traumatically of all – the feast day of Barba'shmin in jail.

But just after midnight LA time, Kiefer Sutherland became a free man once again. People reports:

The actor left at 12:05 a.m., according to jail spokesman John Balian. "[Kiefer] looked like he was glad to be out," said Balian, who added that the actor was wearing a shirt and jeans when he left, and took home whatever personal belongings he originally brought with him. "Throughout his stay, he never griped, never complained," Balian previously said. "He never wanted preferential treatment from the get go, and we respect him for that."

Just because Kiefer Sutherland is no longer in jail, though, it doesn't mean that his sentence is over. By driving his car drunk, Kiefer potentially endangered a number of lives, and that's something he'll be legally obliged to remember for a long time. As well as a five-year probation, Kiefer Sutherland will also be required to attend an 18-month alcohol education course and he's been ordered into weekly therapy sessions for six months as well.

But don't worry if you think that therapy will change Kiefer's lovably raucous persona – if 20 months of Chinese torture couldn't make him talk, the 24 hour-long chats with a disinterested shrink won't change his ways.

However, the repercussions of Kiefer Sutherland's probation will affect all of us in an unexpectedly horrific way. Kiefer Sutherland is out of jail and without a hit TV show to star in and a court-ordered obligation not to spend his free time getting trashed on booze, and that means the likelihood of Kiefer Sutherland making movies again has just shot up. And we all remember The Last Days Of Frankie The Fly well enough to not take this news lightly.

Read more:

Kiefer Sutherland Released From Jail – People

Why? Because it's literally the only chance you'll have of doing it without Jack Bauer chasing you, shooting you, kicking you out of the back of trains and never ever urinating not even once. That's right – Kiefer Sutherland is in jail. Yesterday Kiefer Sutherland was sentenced to 48 days in jail following his DUI arrest earlier this year, and then immediately started his sentence. And, unlike Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan or Nicole Richie, Kiefer Sutherland is expected to complete his jail sentence in full, something that Kiefer would have probably avoided if he'd thought to release an ill-judged pop CD, star in a terrible reality TV show or go without underwear when getting out of cars now and then.

What with the writers' strike still trudging along in Hollywood, season seven of 24 has been delayed indefinitely. And without a day job that involves blowing up the bloke from Babe on an oil platform or watching Little Lord Fauntleroy get blinded by a bomb, it's not like Kiefer Sutherland had anything particularly interesting to do anyway, so that's why he's in jail.

OK, technically the reason why Kiefer Sutherland is in jail is because he was arrested for drink-driving in September, capping off an impressively irresponsible run of four arrests for exactly the same thing, but you get the idea. And yesterday Kiefer Sutherland had to face the music.

At 5:30pm local time, just two hours after his 48-day jail sentence was confirmed in court, Kiefer Sutherland turned up to Glendale City Jail to begin his sentence. And, in typical fashion, not even the prison officers could stop themselves falling in love with adorable Mr Sutherland – like jail spokesman Officer John Balian, who said:

"Mr. Sutherland is very polite and humble. He was very cooperative during the booking process."

Spending 48 days in jail should be a breeze for Kiefer Sutherland, though. Like other celebrities, he'll be spending his sentence alone in a two-man cell and will get to move about the prison freely doing laundry and kitchen duties for the duration of his time inside. All that plus Kiefer should get the chance to brush up on his torturing skills each time a nonce tries to attack him from behind with a pebble in a sock.

But it won't all be fun fun fun. The timing of Kiefer's sentencing is terrible because it strips the world of one of the most-loved yuletide traditions, the sight of Kiefer Sutherland attacking a Christmas tree with his entire body. That's like Christmas without Santa or figgy pudding or that slightly disappointed feeling when you open presents that you don't want.

The biggest problem, however, will come after Kiefer Sutherland is released from jail. Once the 24 writers come back off strike, they're going to have to quickly work out a way to explain how Jack Bauer came to get a spidery tattoo reading 'I Love Glendale Prison Dec 07' scrawled all across his face two-thirds of the way through a telephone conversation with Chloe O'Brian.

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Kiefer Clocks Into Jail - E! Online