It’ll be a fang-tastic New Year’s Day, as BBC One announces Gatiss & Moffat’s ‘Dracula’ will premiere at 9pm on Wednesday, 1st January 2020.
The 3x90min mini-series is written and created by ‘Sherlock’ creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and inspired by Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Three feature-length episodes will re-introduce the world to Dracula. In Transylvania in 1897, the blood-drinking Count is drawing his plans against Victorian London. And be warned: the dead travel fast.
Unlike ‘Sherlock’, this version of Dracula does not pull the character into the modern-day but stays closer to the original setting. It will also use elements of the original novel, although with a twist. Speaking at MCM Comic Con, Mark paraphrased the great Eric Morecambe saying “All the beats of the novel are really in three episodes, but not necessarily in the same order…”
Danish actor Claes Bang stars in the lead role of Dracula, alongside a cast which includes John Heffernan (‘Collateral’, ‘Dickensian’), Joanna Scanlan (‘No Offence’), Dolly Wells (‘Doll & Em’, ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’), Sacha Dhawan (‘Iron Fist’), Jonathan Aris (‘Stan Lee’s Lucky Man’), Morfydd Clark (‘Patrick Melrose’, ‘The City and the City’) and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (‘Misfits’, ‘Utopia’). Also starring are Lyndsey Marshal (‘Trauma’, ‘The League Of Gentlemen’), Chanel Cresswell (‘The Bay’, ‘This Is England’), Matthew Beard (‘An Education’, ‘The Imitation Game’), Lydia West (‘Years & Years’), Paul Brennen (‘Wild Bill’, ‘Happy Valley’), Sarah Niles (‘Catastrophe’, ‘Beautiful People’), Sofia Oxenham (‘Poldark’, ‘Grantchester’), John McCrea (‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’, ‘God’s Own Country’), Phil Dunster (‘Humans’, ‘Save Me’) and television newcomer Millicent Wong.
Jonny Campbell (‘Informer’, ‘Westworld’), Damon Thomas (‘Killing Eve’, ‘Penny Dreadful’) and Paul McGuigan (‘Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool’, ‘Sherlock’) will direct Dracula’s three feature-length instalments.
“It’ll give adults nightmares,” commented Steven during the panel. “It’ll properly frighten you, but it’s scary, like a ghost story. It’s fun, it’s exciting, but yes, you will be unable to sleep, ever again.”
Dracula (a Hartswood Films production) was commissioned for BBC One by Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content and Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, and is a co-production with Netflix. It is written and created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss; executive producers are Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat and Sue Vertue for Hartswood Films, Ben Irving for the BBC and it will be handled by Larry Tanz and Carolyn Newman for Netflix.
‘Dracula‘ premieres Wednesday, 1st January 2020 (New Year’s Day) at 9pm BBC One in the UK. The series will air on Netflix outside of the UK and Ireland.
