British mini-series from 1998

Reviewed by David Longhorn

Writer/Director - Joe Ahearne

Jack Davenport - Michael Colefield
Susannah Harker - Angie Marsh
Idris Elba - Vaughan Rice
Philip Quast - Pearse Harman

"We don’t take much, it doesn’t hurt,
and you don’t remember."

available on DVD or VHS from amazon.com

This impressive series broke new ground in the horror field, not least because of its rejection of most of the conventions of the vampire story. The word vampire is never mentioned by any of the characters, human or otherwise. Vampires are referred to as ‘leeches’or ‘Code Fives,’ five equalling Roman numeral V.

Joe Ahearne’s control of the series was not unlike that of Joss Whedon’s command of the Buffyverse, albeit on a much smaller scale. In both cases a single creative