A three-part horror drama in which Count Dracula travels from Transylvania to modern England, pursued across centuries by the descendants of his most tenacious adversary. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the partnership behind Sherlock, reunited for this loose adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, with development beginning in June 2017 and a BBC commission following in October 2018. Their stated ambition was to make Dracula the hero of his own story rather than a lurking antagonist, and to treat the source material with the same mixture of fidelity and invention they had applied to Conan Doyle.
Claes Bang was cast in the title role in November 2018. The first episode plants Dracula firmly in Stoker's Transylvania, with John Heffernan as a weakening Jonathan Harker and Dolly Wells as the formidably sharp Sister Agatha Van Helsing, who interrogates Harker at a convent before Dracula arrives to dismantle it. The second episode moves the action to the Demeter, the ship carrying Dracula to England, where he picks off passengers one by one while absorbing their memories and mannerisms.
The third episode deposits him in the present day, where Wells reappears as Agatha's descendant Dr Zoe Van Helsing, and the series reaches its conclusion through a confrontation that turns on Dracula's deepest fear rather than any conventional weapon. Filming took place at Orava Castle, Banská Štiavnica, and Zuberec in Slovakia, as well as at Bray Studios in Berkshire, a location with its own Dracula history as the former home of Hammer Film Productions. The series premiered on BBC One on 1 January 2020, broadcast across three consecutive days, before arriving on Netflix on 4 January.
The title sequence, made by Peter Anderson Studio, was nominated for a BAFTA Craft Award in 2021 in the Television Craft category for Titles and Graphic Identity. On Rotten Tomatoes the series holds a 71% approval rating; Metacritic awarded it 75 out of 100.
Production Details
United Kingdom / BBC One, Netflix - Hartswood Films / 2020
Writers: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat
Directors: Jonny Campbell, Damon Thomas, Paul McGuigan
Music: David Arnold, Michael Price
Main Cast
Claes Bang as Count Dracula
Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing / Dr Zoe Van Helsing
John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker
Morfydd Clark as Mina Murray
Joanna Scanlan as Mother Superior
Lydia West as Lucy Westenra
Sacha Dhawan as Dr Sharma
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Adisa
Mark Gatiss as Frank Renfield
