A NUN was decapitated, a man’s face was ripped off and many of us cowered behind the sofa in fear . . . but Dracula fans are thirsty for more.
The new three-part adaptation on BBC1 has proved a hit with critics as well as viewers, with 3.6million tuning in on New Year’s Day.
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Written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat – the brains behind Sherlock and Doctor Who – Danish actor Claes Bang stars as the savage but seductive vampire.
As the drama draws to a close tonight, Kate Jackson and Rod McPhee take a look at the monster who first sunk his teeth into our imaginations more than 120 years ago . . . and has never let go.
We also relive the scariest moments of the series so far.
Dracula continues on BBC1 Friday night at 9pm and is on BBC iPlayer.
Hidden sexuality of author shaped tale
ABRAHAM “Bram” Stoker grew up in Dublin in a middle-class Protestant family.
He married the beautiful Florence Balcombe, daughter of an Army officer who lived on the same road.
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They had a son, Irving, and remained together until Stoker died, aged 64, in 1912.
However, it has been suggested their marriage was largely sexless amid speculation Stoker may have been gay.
The BBC1 adaptation of his most famous work certainly doesn’t shy away from the homoerotic elements.
Scholars have pointed to the writer’s long friendship with actor Sir Henry Irving, whom Stoker worked for at London’s Lyceum Theatre, as well as his adoring letters to the US poet Walt Whitman.
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Whitman, widely thought to be gay, was once described by Stoker as being a “wife to his soul”.
On In Search Of Dracula (airing tomorrow night on BBC2 at 10.35pm), author Sir Christopher Frayling says Stoker “hero-worshipped” Irving.
He says: “There was something almost umbilical about their relationship.” He believes Dracula’s mannerisms were inspired by Irving’s on-stage performances.
Stoker also knew Oscar Wilde, who dated Florence before Stoker married her.
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Dracula was written after Wilde was convicted for sodomy and it was published in 1897, the year Wilde was released from prison.
Stoker aligned himself with widespread homophobia after Wilde’s jailing.
However, author Talia Schaffer suggests this was, “partly to disguise his own vulnerability as a gay man”.
Bad lad called Vlad who inspired villain
ONE of author Bram Stoker’s many influences was undoubtedly Vlad Tepes – Vlad The Impaler.
Born in Transylvania, where Stoker’s fictional vampire resides, Vlad ruled Wallachia, now part of Romania, in the 15th century.
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His father took the name Vlad Dracul after he was initiated into an order of Christian knights known as the Order of the Dragon.
“Dracul” means dragon or devil in the local dialect.
His brutal tactics for dealing with enemies included disembowelment, decapitation and skinning his victims alive. But his preferred punishment was driving a wooden stake through the body of a victim.
Vlad was said to have had as many as 20,000 people impaled on the banks of the river Danube during his campaign against Ottoman invaders in 1462.
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Stories that he dipped his bread into their blood is up for debate.
Despite some similarities, the academic Elizabeth Miller, who has written several works on Dracula, believes Stoker “did not know much about” Vlad and “certainly not enough for us to say Vlad was the main inspiration”.
Before writing the novel, Stoker spent years reading up on European folklore, including books on werewolves and vampires.
Stoker said his monster came to him in a nightmare after eating crab meat and mayonnaise.
Claes act is 87th to don cape
INCREDIBLY, Claes Bang is the 87th actor to pull on Dracula’s cape and slip in the fangs.
The Dane is probably best known for starring alongside Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss in the arthouse black comedy The Square.
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That film won the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 while 6ft 4in Claes was named Best Actor at that year’s European Film Awards.
He has been touted as a possible successor to Daniel Craig as superspy James Bond.
John Heffernan, from Billericay in Essex, plays lawyer Jonathan Harker.
John’s previous TV credits include appearances on Luther, ITV’s The Loch and the Beeb period drama Dickensian.
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Harker’s fiancee Mina is played by Morfydd Clark, who recently appeared in His Dark Materials.
The Welsh actress has been linked with a role in the upcoming Amazon adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings.
Sister Agatha – the BBC’s updated take on Stoker’s vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing – is played by Londoner Dolly Wells.
She is best known for her Sky Atlantic comedy Doll & Em, made with her friend Emily Mortimer, and was in big-screen horror mash-up Pride And Prejudice And Zombies.
Scary moments go straight to jugular
Zombie chase: After exploring the bowels of Dracula’s castle, captive lawyer Jonathan Harker is chased by a horde of zombies, including one unfortunate undead woman who has worms wiggling from holes in her face.
Vampire baby: The count brings home a treat for one of his incarcerated “brides” – a baby to feast on. After falling victim to her, it is reborn undead and tries to sink its own tiny teeth into Jonathan.
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Fly in the eye: It won’t make you jump or frighten you as such, but the moment a fly lands on Jonathan’s eyeball will turn your stomach. Prepare to be repulsed when it crawls inside with him barely noticing.
Harker goes vamp: Poor Jonathan finally realises he has himself been turned into a vampire when he spots blood on his fiancee Mina’s forehead and suddenly sprouts fangs before trying to take a bite.
In bed with Drac: Jonathan has a dream during which he is in bed with fiancee Mina, who is tossing her long, blonde hair in ecstasy. Then she changes into the aged count, with blood running from his mouth.
Face off: The count has a cunning ploy to get Mina to invite him inside – he hides inside Jonathan’s skinned body, then rips it off to reveal his true self.
Bloody mess: After taking his first human feast on board the ship the Demeter, Dracula overflows with blood, leaving it gushing down his chin and chest.
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Turning heads: Jonathan’s tortured existence as a human is ended abruptly when the count breaks his neck with a sharp twist of the head, leaving his undead body writhing on the floor.
Decapitated nun: Enraged at being denied access to the nunnery where his nemesis Sister Agatha was taking refuge, Dracula finds a way in . . . and the Mother Superior loses her head.
In wolf’s clothing: The count looks like he has been born again as he bursts out from a wolf in a fleshy sac, while the sisters look on in disbelief.
No rest for the wicked: In a classic moment that pays homage to Christopher Lee’s Hammer films from the Sixties and Seventies, Dracula seems to float from his coffin, his eyes bloodshot and fangs bared. Terrifying.
We're vampires too
THEY might not fear the daylight or garlic but thousands of people call themselves vampires.
Rather than sinking their teeth into victims’ necks, these “sanguinarians” – meaning blood drinkers – prefer to find a consenting donor and use sterilised equipment.
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Psychologist Dr Emyr Williams said in 2014 there could be 15,000 of these “vampires” in the UK.
The Sun travelled to Germany for goth festival Wave-Gotik-Treffen last summer, which attracts a number of Brit vamps.
Londoner Darren Powell, or “Demon Daz”, drinks his girlfriend’s blood twice a week and claimed: “Being a vampire has never been so popular.”
It's the best bloody thing on TV
Review: By Rod McPhee
★★★★★
FROM the moment Jonathan Harker was asked if the count had sucked more than his blood, we knew we were in for a Dracula like no other.
But nobody could have predicted the show’s batty mix of horror and comedy, which hooked viewers more used to cosy period drama on New Year’s Day.
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The Beeb was smart to hit us with the next two episodes in rapid succession. Which is why, ahead of tomorrow night’s finale, the nation is suddenly bitten by the vampire bug all over again.
With a pulsating stream of gore and gags, fanged babies and decapitated nuns, first our stomachs turn – then our sides split.
Writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, who gave us Sherlock, could have treated Bram Stoker’s tale with reverence. Instead, they went for the jugular.
Claes Bang quips in the opener: “I’m undead, I’m not unreasonable.”
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And in last night’s follow-up – on a ship full of trapped human prey – he describes him-self as, “a connoisseur in a wine cellar”.
Dolly Wells steals the show as Sister Agatha Van Helsing, a nun struggling to believe in God.
She says: “Like many women my age, I’m trapped in a loveless marriage, maintaining appearances for the sake of a roof over my head.”
This reinvention keeps the spirit of the original novella but adds clever new elements.
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Caroline Flack jets to LA without boyfriend Lewis Burton before assault trialPurists might roll their eyes at the ramped-up homoeroticism but Gatiss and Moffat are right to take a radical look at such an old story.
We didn’t need just another version of the familiar vampire tale – we needed THIS version.
Disturbing, sexy and wicked, Dracula is bloody marvellous.
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