DRACULA
BBC 1
Available on Blu Ray and DVD

THE RULES OF THE BEAST - first transmitted January 1st 2020

In a remote convent, two nuns listen to a man broken in both body and spirit tell a remarkable tale about a Count who seems to age backwards, lives in a maze-like castle and keeps women locked in the attic.

Thanks to the likes of the TWILIGHT MOVIES and the slew of vampire shows in their wakes, the bloodsuckers have had something of a resurgence and PR makeover in recent times, having been transformed from terrifying creatures of the night to noble boyfriend material. This new take on the vampire that started it all, Count Dracula aims to reverse that a little by giving us a vampire who is charming, yes, but also capable of slaughtering whole villages, or convents, should he wish to.

Sadly, this opening episode misses the mark of reclaiming the count by making him a bit of a gurning fool. It is hard to tell whether this is because of Clae Bang's performance or because the script makes the character rather too fond of puns and one-liners that undermine any threat he may have. Rather than dangerous, he comes across as smug, which isn't a good look on a vampire.

Matters are saved, however, by Sister Agatha. Brought wonderfully to life by Polly Wells, Sister Agatha is one of the most wonderful creations for a long time. She gets all the best lines and yet comes across and smart and confident rather than conceited. A modern woman in nun's clothing, she captivates and entertains in such a stellar way that the poor count becomes a mere shadow in her luminance. When the pair finally face off at the gates of the convent, it is she who dominates the proceedings. If this does not make a fully-fledged star of Polly Wells then there is no justice in the world.

Also worthy of mention in the performance stakes in John Heffernan who manages to hold his own in Harker's scenes with Sister Agatha and is the more interesting character in his encounters with the count.

It's also impossible to fault the production values. Money has clearly been spent on this adaptation. The castle's exterior and interior are beautifully rendered and the sense of gloom, isolation and impending doom are nicely counterpointed by the brightness of convent interrogation scenes.

In short, thank God for Polly Wells and Sister Agatha for making this far more entertaining than it would otherwise hae been.

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BLOOD VESSEL - first transmitted January 2nd 2020

Count Dracula regales the imprisoned Sister Agatha with the tale of his sea voyage to England, a trip that few of the other passengers would survive.

The punning title of this episode tells you all you really need to know about it. Barely covered in the original novel, the sea voyage that brings Dracula to England's green a pleasant land is couched in another 'telling Sister Agatha a story' format that diminishes any real impact the story might have had. The count is alone in a confined space with no escape, all the better to torment and kill the other passengers, but the character's smugness here makes him more irritating that scary and we barely get time to know the other characters before they get turned into vampire fodder, so their inevitable fates are robbed of any real tragedy.

This is the writing team at their tricksiest and the incessant 'did you see what I did there?' nature of the plot 'twists' and arch dialogue distances the audience from both antihero and his victims. It is telling that the only real impactive moment is when a child takes her own life almost wordlessly to prevent her father from surrendering to the vampire.

This is a big step down from the first episode and ends on a cliffhanger that seems to not only contradict what happened only minutes before but also promises a major departure from the source material in the final episode.

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THE DARK COMPASS - first transmitted January 3rd 2020

Dracula struggles ashore after more than a hundred years on the sea bed. There he is met by armed paramilitaries who imprison him in a state of the art facility aimed at studying him and run by a distant relative of Sister Agatha. Should he escape into the modern world, could anyone stop him?

Mark Gatiss, one half of the writing team, made a documentary called Finding Dracula in which his reverence for the source material of this series shines through. This makes it all the more difficult to understand the thinking behind throwing the entire book out of the window in this final episode and coming up with a whole 'Dracula in the modern world' riff. It's even more difficult to understand the thinking behind making the Count a character who seems completely unable to assimilate into his new surroundings and at a loss with how to deal with the new society.

The early parts, in which Dracula is cornered, escapes and gets cornered again actually work quite well, along with the scenes where Zoe Van Helsing (a pale reflection of Sister Agatha, despite also being played by Polly Wells) spars with her prisoner have some spark. When the vampire manages to escape by virtue of employing a lawyer via the internet (I kid you not), things start to get a bit silly. How did these paramilitaries operate openly in England without government sanction and why would they not just do away with the lawyer to protect their acquisition of the count instead of just rolling over at the first mention of civil liberties. It's all a bit foolish.

It gets even worse with the introduction of Lucy Westenra, a vapid social media influencer (though there is little actual evidence of her influencing anyone) as Dracula's new obsession. He has been trying to create the ultimate bride, hence his obsession with the 'remarkable' people on the ship in the second episode, but it is impossible to understand his obsession with Lucy. It has to be explained in dialogue that he is drawn to her absolute fearlessness, but that seems to be more a mixture of uncaring self-involvement and lack of understanding of, well, anything.

The count as a character is effectively neutered and rendered unimportant in the modern world. There is very little sign of him doing much damage, since Lucy shares her blood willingly. The revenge motivation of Lucy's other lover might have been able to propel the plot had she shown any interest in him at all and so the big finale in which Van Helsing and Dracula face off and psychoanalyse each other to death is a big, limp letdown.

The whole Lucy being cremated subplot is pointless and there's a whole scene in a graveyard which has no purpose than to allow Dracula to utter the immortal line 'The children of the night, what music they make', which just highlights just how out of kilter this whole episode has been.

We keep coming back to Dracula. He is a character that fascinates endlessly, but in recent times he seems to have eluded those who try to explore his myth. The opening episode apart, courtesy of Sister Agatha, this will not long linger in the memory.

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