Dracula (2020 TV series)

2020 British horror television series

4 min read

Dracula is a horror drama television serial developed by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, loosely based on the 1897 novel of the same name by Bram Stoker. The series, consisting of three episodes, premiered on 1 January 2020 and was broadcast over three consecutive days on BBC One before releasing on Netflix. Claes Bang stars as the title character.

Premise

The series follows Dracula from his origins in Eastern Europe to his battles with Van Helsing's descendants and beyond. Netflix's description reads: "The Count Dracula legend transforms with new tales that flesh out the vampire's gory crimes - and bring his vulnerability into the light."

Cast

Episodes

Production

Development

Development on Dracula began in June 2017, with Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat reuniting to write the episodes. In October 2018, the series was officially commissioned by the BBC, to air on BBC One and Netflix. Claes Bang was set to star as the eponymous Dracula in November 2018. According to the writers, Dracula in their version is "the hero of his own story" – the central focus of the narrative and main character, rather than a shadowy villain for more traditional heroes to overcome. As with their TV series Sherlock, they aimed to make their version of Dracula both faithful and faithless at the same time, taking details from the original novel, adding "a lot of new stuff" [that was not in the novel] and ignoring some passages from it.

While the series includes a scene in which it is implied that Dracula and Harker have sex, Moffat has said that it is not correct to describe their interpretation of Dracula as bisexual: "He's bi-homicidal, it's not the same thing. He's killing them, not dating them." He also added: "He's not actually having sex with anyone. He's drinking their blood."

Casting

In February 2019, John Heffernan, Dolly Wells, Joanna Scanlan, Morfydd Clark and Lujza Richter joined the cast, with Gatiss also set to appear in the series. In April, Jonathan Aris, Sacha Dhawan, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Catherine Schell, Youssef Kerkour and Clive Russell joined the cast with Jonny Campbell, Damon Thomas and Paul McGuigan announced as directors.

Filming

Moffat revealed filming on the series had begun on 4 March 2019. Filming took place at Orava Castle, Banská Štiavnica and Zuberec in Slovakia and at Bray Studios in Berkshire. Filming was completed on 1 August 2019. Bray Studios was the home of many Hammer Film Productions, the studio, having been initiated by the company (famed for its horror films including Dracula) as their base of productions in the 1950s.

Title sequence

The title sequence was made by Peter Anderson Studio. In 2021 it was nominated for a BAFTA at the British Academy Television Craft Awards in the category "Television Craft – Titles & Graphic Identity".

Release

Broadcast

Dracula premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2020, and was broadcast over three consecutive days. The three episodes were released on Netflix on 4 January 2020. The documentary In Search of Dracula, with Mark Gatiss exploring the legacy of the famous Count, aired alongside the series on BBC Two on 3 January. The overnight ratings for the three episodes were 3.60 million, 2.85 million, and 2.70 million respectively.

Marketing

To mark the series premiere, BBC Creative and Talon Outdoor constructed billboards stabbed with wooden stakes that would cast a shadow of the Count after sunset, and below the billboards was a stake inside a case with the label "In case of vampires - break glass". These billboards were put up on Brixton Road in London and Upper Dean Street in Birmingham. The billboards won a number of awards and £100,000 worth of media space for the creators at the 2020 Outdoor Media Awards organised by Clear Channel UK in partnership with Campaign.

Reception

Critical reception

The series was met with positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series garnered a 71% approval and an average rating of 7.2/10 from 55 critic reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A delicious blend of horror and humor that more-or-less balances modern sensibilities and the character's beloved legacy, Dracula is a frighteningly fun - if not always faithful - time". Metacritic assigned the series a score of 75 out of 100, based on 8 reviews, signifying "generally-favorable reviews".

Accolades

Future

In February 2020, Bang expressed his interest in a second series. Gatiss said "Apparently if you pour blood onto Dracula's ashes he comes back. Who knows? Dracula tends to come back, that's what vampires do - but we have no idea [if the show will return]".