BBC Dracula

Telejester

Dracula is delivering his lines as if it were Jonathan Ross playing the evil villian, whereas Ross is an overpaid arsehole......this series of drac has been fabulous and sister Aggie is stealing the show.

Sassafras

earwighoney said:

Sassafras said:

My favourite Dracula was Christopher Lee.

Haven't seen any of these but I thought Penny Dreadful was very entertaining.

Christopher Lee is my favourite everything.  His films with Peter Cushing in particular are ones that seem to bring me more joy as a viewer than almost all other films. 

He was also a great Bond villain. The film was mediocre but he took it up a notch or two.

Philly_Q

Sassafras said:

earwighoney said:

Sassafras said:

My favourite Dracula was Christopher Lee.

Haven't seen any of these but I thought Penny Dreadful was very entertaining.

Christopher Lee is my favourite everything.  His films with Peter Cushing in particular are ones that seem to bring me more joy as a viewer than almost all other films. 

He was also a great Bond villain. The film was mediocre but he took it up a notch or two.

I think Christopher Lee was born to play Dracula, but the Hammer films, apart from the first one, aren't very good and Lee is woefully underused - he doesn't even speak in at least one of them!  He wanted to make a version more faithful to the book and was, I think, proud of the Jess Franco version... but it's not very good either.

(Speaking of The Man with the Golden Gun, that film is helped a bit by Lee but also by Maud Adams, who's quite a tragic character as Scaramanga's mistress.  In comparison Britt Ekland is just an ornamental dimwit.)

Clarky

breakstuff said:

Yep, really enjoying it so far, Dolly Wells being the standout to me. She's very good in it. 

Anyone notice the Crowded House reference?
Couldn't suss out the context for putting it in if deliberate though. 

she was so good at being Dutch.. not only the accent, but the mannerisms etc.. that I was thinking,
why is there a Dutch girl in this?? until the van Helsing bit became clear..

paulnb57

Hugely disappointing final episode...

Kittyfrisk

Bollocks. Thought this was going to be about a new BBC Goth Vampire Channel 

Bellycaster

Very good, I enjoyed it. Also amazed I managed to watch 4.5 hours of the BBC without Vomiting Blood

stratman3142

paulnb57 said:

Hugely disappointing final episode...

Agreed. Such promise in the first two episodes, which were really entertaining. I almost forgave them for completely ruining Sherlock Holmes for me. Then they ruined Dracula in the last episode.

But Claes Bang and Dolly Wells were outstanding. Also the cinematography  was superb. The overwrought writing ultimately let things down.

not_the_dj

Well the ‘Children of the Night’ quote was finally shoehorned into the script, and I was waiting for the Peter Cushing pulling down the curtains stunt.

Obviously done with a lot of affection to the character and previous tellings, although halfway through the final one I was a bit unsure about the time jump, but on the whole I think it worked well as a twist on the tale.

Too late in the evening now but I’m looking forward to seeing the companion Mark Gatiss program. 

artiebear

Clarky said:

breakstuff said:

Yep, really enjoying it so far, Dolly Wells being the standout to me. She's very good in it. 

Anyone notice the Crowded House reference?
Couldn't suss out the context for putting it in if deliberate though. 

she was so good at being Dutch.. not only the accent, but the mannerisms etc.. that I was thinking,
why is there a Dutch girl in this?? until the van Helsing bit became clear..

She started to remind me too much of a Dutch girl who worked for EMI in Nashville when I was out based there, happy thoughts ! 
Overall a great take on the tale.

Bellycaster

Clarky said:

breakstuff said:

Yep, really enjoying it so far, Dolly Wells being the standout to me. She's very good in it. 

Anyone notice the Crowded House reference?
Couldn't suss out the context for putting it in if deliberate though. 

she was so good at being Dutch.. not only the accent, but the mannerisms etc.. that I was thinking,
why is there a Dutch girl in this?? until the van Helsing bit became clear..

Ironically, her Father, John Wells was in the 1980's TV Mini Series......."Dutch Girls" Oh...and he made an appearance in Bottom as well.

Philly_Q

Well..... it was ultimately a bit too Sherlock.  I didn't mind the time jump but it didn't need Gatiss's comedy Renfield and far too much time was devoted to the unpleasant Lucy and weedy Seward.  Not a total let-down, but a little anticlimactic.

grungebob

The last episode was just meh. 

It almost felt like I’d wasted the previous two nights. 

The time jump was a good twist but not really needed. The modern characters were shoe horned in at the end and pointless they missed an opportunity to have the modern worlds unhealthy lifestyle the ultimate downfall of Dracula, in a world that seemingly doesn’t care if people go missing, people already zombies to their phones he could of had seemingly very rich pickings for food, no one would care if people went missing, but all the damn hormones , E numbers and general public health decline could have killed him off, not to mention the prevalence of aids and other immune diseases etc they started it mostly with the cancer reference but it could have been developed better. 

Clarky

Bellycaster said:

Clarky said:

breakstuff said:

Yep, really enjoying it so far, Dolly Wells being the standout to me. She's very good in it. 

Anyone notice the Crowded House reference?
Couldn't suss out the context for putting it in if deliberate though. 

she was so good at being Dutch.. not only the accent, but the mannerisms etc.. that I was thinking,
why is there a Dutch girl in this?? until the van Helsing bit became clear..

Ironically, her Father, John Wells was in the 1980's TV Mini Series......."Dutch Girls" Oh...and he made an appearance in Bottom as well.

interesting coincidence maybe?

Bellycaster

Clarky said:

Bellycaster said:

Clarky said:

breakstuff said:

Yep, really enjoying it so far, Dolly Wells being the standout to me. She's very good in it. 

Anyone notice the Crowded House reference?
Couldn't suss out the context for putting it in if deliberate though. 

she was so good at being Dutch.. not only the accent, but the mannerisms etc.. that I was thinking,
why is there a Dutch girl in this?? until the van Helsing bit became clear..

Ironically, her Father, John Wells was in the 1980's TV Mini Series......."Dutch Girls" Oh...and he made an appearance in Bottom as well.

interesting coincidence maybe?

That's all, yes. Didn't realise who her Dad was, he was in a ton of stuff.

StanleyAccrington

*SPOILER ALERT* 

The final episode was pants. Shame really as it was great prior to this. The ending should have been when Van Helsing ran at the curtains and tore them down...would have been a great nod to the Hammy House Of Horror.

Philly_Q

StanleyAccrington said:

The ending should have been when Van Helsing ran at the curtains and tore them down...would have been a great nod to the Hammy House Of Horror.

I was surprised how clunky that curtain-tearing scene was.  It's brilliantly done in the 1958 film.

underdog

StanleyAccrington said:

*SPOILER ALERT* 

The final episode was pants. Shame really as it was great prior to this. The ending should have been when Van Helsing ran at the curtains and tore them down...would have been a great nod to the Hammy House Of Horror.

Would that not have wasted a whole chunk of character development and plot though? 

All 3 episodes were heavily about learning what and why dracula was, he was never pure evil, there was reasons for everything (though we didn't know them).

VanHelsing didn't simply want to kill him, but learn about him. In the end it became an uneasy respect between the two, and Dracula got to take the pain away of the first woman he met with no fear of him, or death.

TTBZ

Got bored in episode 2 and had no interest about halfway through 3 so switched off. Shame as I thought episode 1 was really good.

stimpsonslostson

I finished it last night & must report that I was somewhat disappointed by the final episode. 
I really enjoyed the camp shock horror of episode 1 & felt the last episode didn't really fit- it almost seemed to be a stand alone. 

Still one of the best things I've seen on TV in a while though.