TV MEMORIES NEW YEAR SPECIAL (part one) - MOFFATT AND GATISS' DRACULA (2020)

New Year's Day 2020.

A strange time to look back upon seeing what the following year would bring to the world but back then COVID was still that strange "Chinese virus" that was just starting to make headlines. On New Year's Day, the unsuspecting population had no reason to think that 2020 would be anything different to any other year you could care to mention (oh, how little we knew...)

As usual the BBC rolled out some premium quality shows to keep the hungover masses entertained on the most anti-climactic day of the year, one of which was a new version of horror classic Dracula. 

This new version was written by ex-Doctor Who showrunner Stephen Moffatt and the BBC'S self styled "master of the macabre" Mark Gatiss - the same writing team who had scored a massive critical and commercial hit with Sherlock. The role of Count Dracula was played by Danish actor Claes Bang. The main idea behind this series was to make Dracula the "hero" (or anti-hero) of his own story by telling much of the tale from Dracula's point of view

The new Dracula was to be a "mini-series" comprising of three 90 minute episodes screened over three nights on BBC One - January the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The series was then released on Netflix from January the 4th onwards.

With a dream team of writers, a Netflix partnership and an expensive marketing campaign there was a lot riding on this reimagining of Bram Stoker's classic novel. So did it work or where the Beeb just trying to suck blood out of a stone ? Read on...

It's probably best to take a look at each episode in turn. So, to start off we had Episode One - The Rules Of The Beast which is the episode that most closely resembles it's source material. I say "most closely" quite lightly as even this episode has some bold departures from Stoker's novel.

It starts off predictably enough with Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) an English lawyer arriving at Castle Dracula to conduct business with the Count. Everything is pretty close to the book at this point - Harker is a typical stiff upper lipped Victorian gent who finds the elderly (yes elderly - as per the book) Count Dracula both eccentric and slightly sinister.

The Count wants Harker to stay at the Castle to help teach him the ways of the modern world, Harker isn't keen but is eventually coerced into doing so by the Count, eventually becoming first his prisoner and ultimately his victim. All the while Harker finds out more secrets about the mysterious Count and his true nature. 

It's in this new version's interpretation of Dracula himself where things start to radically diverge from the original story. I'll just start out by saying that Claes Bang is brilliant as Dracula. He's not Christopher Lee level good (nobody is - not even Bela Lugosi) but he's a damn sight better than most Dracula's we've had in the past fifty odd years (yes - even Gary Oldman). 

The thing I really like about Bang's version of Dracula is just how gleefully evil he is - this is a smart mouthed, smart arse version of the Count who positively revels in his own evilness. He does veer dangerously close to one liner territory at points but Bang is so blatantly having the time of his life playing the Count that you can't help but be swept along by the sheer twisted joyfulness of it all. Bang DEFINITELY deserves his place in the pantheon of Dracula actors.

Another interesting thing about this version of the character is the new take we get on the nature of Dracula's bloodsucking. 

Here, Dracula doesn't just drink blood to survive he also drinks blood to gain knowledge and abilities from his victims. This is one of the reasons he drinks from Harker - he needs to know what an English gentleman is like so that he can blend in with his new hunting ground. So he drinks from Harker and absorbs both his knowledge of the UK and his grasp of the English language. When we first see the elderly Dracula he has a thick Transylvanian accent and looks about a hundred years old, after a few sips from Harker he has a London sounding English accent and looks like he's in his late forties.

This transformation is excellently played by Bang and is definitely an interesting twist from anything we'd seen before. The consequence of this for poor Harker is that he ends up being drained of his own youth and vitality and ends up becoming a zombie-like being, fully aware and still intelligent, but hovering in a state of undeath himself.

Every version of the Dracula story has it's own Van Helsing and here we get a gender flipped version in the form of Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing. I'm not usually that keen on "gender flipping" characters for the sake of it, but if the actress in question is good enough and it makes sense story wise to do so then I'm totally onboard. Thankfully it works here - very well in fact. Wells is great as Van Helsing. Sister Agatha is a nun who's faith is slipping but this only causes her to be even more vigilant in the fight against supernatural evil.

She's a perfect foil for Bang's Dracula - every bit as sassy (and in places as funny) as the Count himself is. The two play off each other really well as two opposite sides of the same coin. Mortal enemies who develop a fascination and respect for one another whilst still locked into thier roles to the bitter end.

The scene where Dracula baits Sister Agatha outside a monastery is absolutely electric, especially when she turns round and gives him as good as she gets. Two utterly fascinating characters at total loggerheads with each other - unstoppable force meets immovable object. In fact,  if the powers that be ever decide to cast another female Doctor Who then they wouldn't go far wrong if they gave the job to Wells, she's got that perfect combination of quirky eccentricity and steely resolve that every good Time Lord (and Van Helsing) needs.

Seeing as this was originally broadcast to a prime time BBC One audience, you might be forgiven for assuming that the horror elements would be greatly toned down to accommodate a more mainstream audience...not bloody likely mate. There's enough violence, gore and disturbing moments for any jaded horror fan to sink thier teeth (or fangs) into.

Nuns get slaughtered, a mother superior gets graphically decapitated. Fingernails get pulled off. At one point Dracula physically climbs out of a wolf's body - it's like something out of Hellraiser for crying out loud !!!!!

Best of all though are the undead servants of Dracula who he keeps folded up in tiny boxes until he's ready to free them. These shambling zombie

things with thier emaciated faces and clicking, dislocated limbs bring a truly memorable element of body horror to the proceedings and are probably one of the main elements of this version that people remember to this day.

Oh...and there's a vampire baby as well. Another very disturbing (and bloody cool) moment.

There's lots to enjoy in this first episode. I can remember watching it on that New Year's night and really looking forward to the next episode - it certainly cheered me up about having to go back to work the next day to the crappy, soul destroying double glazing call centre that I was fastly growing to despise with every fibre of my being, that's for certain.

I'd give this a five star rating, it's a bloody good (in every sense of the word) opener.

This was only meant to be a single article but I've run on for far too long about this episode already (this always seems to happen). So join me next time as I continue this look at Dracula. It's going to be... FANGTASTIC !!!!!