Having landed in Whitby, Count Dracula is surrounded by people who have been waiting for him… but for how long?

If you haven’t yet seen episode 2, please stop reading now…

 

Still here? In which case, you know about that wonderful moment at the end where it’s revealed that the Count has been slumbering for 123 years! Yes, we’re not in Hungary any more, and it’s the 21st Century. Unfortunately, there’s nothing quite so thrilling or shocking in this final instalment.

Frankly, it’s a mess of ideas that’s all over the shop. Already I’m hankering for those claustrophobic moments in the castle or onboard the decks of the Demeter. Taking a leaf from Dracula AD 1972 (there’s a neat nod to it in the name of a hospital room) or The Satanic Rites of Dracula, the Count is the fish out of water in selfie-culture London rather than groovy 60s London. Claes Bang’s Dracula is somewhat helped by his ability to immediately get up to speed by dining on a local, somewhat impeding the inherent humour in being over a century out of time.

Dolly Wells returns, now the great great niece of Sister Agatha, but this time she’s working for the mysterious Jonathan Harker Foundation, which has Hannibal Lecter-quality confinement cells in its Whitby secret lair (next to the abbey ruins), armed mercenaries and a strange student blood donation programme. At the same time, we’re watching the young Dr Seward and his unrequited love for Bloofer Lady Lucy Westenra (Years and Years’ excellent Lydia West), their arc being the only one to play out successfully.

The final section, which admittedly gives Wells the opportunity to run along a table and pull down the drapes in a lovely homage to Peter Cushing, is just a bit messy and confusing. Dracula’s not actually allergic to the sun or the cross, he’s just conditioned himself to think that. He’s scared of dying and he’s attracted to Lucy’s ‘couldn’t give a damn’ approach. And then he (I think) ingests Van Helsing’s poisonous blood because he doesn’t want her to suffer. And they drift away in the aftermath of some bizarre blood pact. The end.

Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed two-thirds of this series. It’s a shame that the final third leaves me frustrated. I don’t think it’s the contemporary setting that fails, rather the amount of things going on, and not satisfactorily resolved. Maybe it would have worked better as a series in its own right, rather than squeezing so much into 90 minutes. A curate’s egg, but one I’d happily return to in the right circumstances. 6/10

Nick Joy