(Insert obligatory exclamations about where did the time go etc. etc.)
Another new year but this year is different to the five before it in that there will be no new series of Being Human to look forward to.
(Small sob)
The fanbase is still there, still strong, still obsessed faithful! Probably still arguing over who was Mitchell’s true love (Josie), had Herrick really lost his memory (no, well, sort of), were they really human (No!) (NO!) and exactly how old was Ivan?! The answer to that one is: it depends… If you believe series two he’s 237 but if you believe Toby – and why wouldn’t we* – he’s over 400 as he said here.
* He has been known to be a touch misleading…
There is still tutting over toxic werewolf blood, summoning/banishing/imprisoning/whatever the devil rituals, off stage deaths (Oh, Pineapples…) and whatever happened to Arthur the archivist? (OK, maybe that one’s just me.) There are still damp gussets galore over Mitchell and Hal… although not mine. That won’t surprise you much but to be honest I’ll keep the state of my gusset to myself thanks.
If none of the above makes sense to you – welcome! Now go back and catch up. I’ll wait.
People are still visiting this little blog – for which I am very grateful and always slightly surprised – but now Being Human is over there won’t be regular updates. However – if, or more likely when, something occurs to me (which I’m pretty sure it will) I’ll still post. If you’re interested do follow and you’ll get a notification as and when there’s anything new. (Sales pitch over – as you were.)
In fact to whet your appetite there is a new post brewing at the moment – I’ve been thinking about the Being Human humans…
Watch this space.
Not literally. You can go and sit down somewhere comfy.
It seems timely to go right back to the beginning – and the three prequels for our original trio… (Not forgetting Herrick’s first appearance of course!)
I’ve chosen my favourite episode from each series and now I have to pick my favourite out of those five. And no, I can’t change my mind about them now. Not even if I ask myself very nicely.
Of course there are so many scenes and characters and sub-plots that I’ve had to leave out and what might be good would be to put together my favourite episode that never was, made up of all the very best bits. Except it would make no sense at all and be several hours long. In that light it’s not such a great idea, so let’s junk Plan B and go back to where I started.
Where was I?
In case you’ve forgotten – and frankly, I need a reminder myself – here are the runners and riders – linked to the posts where I kind of/sort of justified the choices.
Should I do reverse order? Yes? Oh all right then! Anything to make life harder… Although I’ve already thought of a snag. These are my favourite episodes from each series so although I’m going to put The Last Broadcast in fifth place it wouldn’t come fifth if I chose my over all, anything goes top five. Are you with me? No, me neither but having done the excuses lets move on with the announcement of the favourite episode out of the five I chose, one from each series, not the overall top five episodes winners and losers. Or something something something…
Although the winner would have still won however I worked it out. Clever that…In case you missed it in the excitement, fifth is 5.06 The Last Broadcast.
Equal third (yes I can have a tie) are 1.06 Bad Moon Rising and 2.05 Through the Looking Glass.
Second and the proud recipient of a rather lovely satin sash and a small tiara – 4.07 Making History. I’d give the sash to Cutler but I’m not at all convinced he’d wear it. The tiara however…
This episode edged out The Looking Glass because of The Looking Glass. Both flashback heavy, cutting back and forth, old loves and new ones – OK that’s possibly stretching it a bit but wait! Making History took that premise and built on it and they built good! Yes Cutler is my second favourite character and I do love a man who can dig a decent grave but the whole episode had a depth and quality of image and setting that made it distinct in the whole series. Sharp colour in the present day, unremitting grey in the future and warm sepia tones in the 1950’s giving a glow of nostalgia to what was a particularly twisted relationship. In fact I think Cutler/Hal beats the tied-to-a-bookcase courtship of Josie and Mitchell into a cocked trilby! The locations were also perfectly chosen, ending in the glacial white night club, the complete opposite to a classic gothic horror cellar. And that cellar, practical and prosaic, not a scrap of gothic just a rather useful cage of fresh mixers perfect for draining a fresh corpse…
I like it. A lot.
And first? Which gets the bouquet of roses, shiny shiny sash and the big crown? Frankly if you’re asking that you haven’t been paying attention!
It really isn’t a hard choice to make. There is one episode that for me sums up everything that is wonderful about Being Human – the writing, the characters, the setting. It’s an hour of television that stands up to almost anything you care to put against it.
3.05 The Longest Day – written by Sarah Phelps, directed by Philip Johns.
Yes, it’s a Herrick centred episode. Are you surprised? Really?
It’s not just about Herrick though, Wendy, the community psychiatric nurse was one of the most fully realised one episode guests ever. She wasn’t supernatural and she wasn’t outright funny nor was she tragic but somehow Sarah Phelps and Nicola Walker made her all that and more. I read that the part was written especially for Nicola and it fitted her like a bespoke gown – paired with some eminently sensible shoes.
It’s hard to pin down exactly what made Wendy wonderful. Obviously the combination of great writing and great performance but I think it was the tiny details and the almost throwaway lines. “Tena Lady moment!”, the sandwich in the laptop, the way she presented her ID badge, “My mother would love you!” and the phone call on the loo. The actual loo. It all added up to something rather special in the most perfectly understated way. In fact that’s probably the key to the episode – dark and twisted events, dark and twisted people, but perfectly, totally believable. Unusually for me I didn’t question a single motive in the whole hour! Not even Nina’s!
This was Herrick’s return – we last saw him muddy and in the all together (bar some strategically clinging compost) in a snowy field someone unspecified as Cara and Daisy bled all over his uneasy resting place. Since then he’s rediscovered his voice, found a suit but not his memory and finally given ever-loving Cara the slip.
It’s an immaculate performance from Jason Watkins (more so after his bath) and even now after many watches I’m still not sure if Herrick was faking it or not. Mostly I think he was but maybe not from the beginning and to be honest I’m not really convinced either way! There were so many nuances to what he did throughout the episode, the terror in the hospital and the confusion in Honolulu Heights, his total blanking of Mitchell. Do we believe his horror when he realises he had no reflection or the way he clinically disposes of Cara. She’s outlived her usefulness now hasn’t she? Or was he really sacred of what she wanted with him? But then there’s the way he draws in George, kind words and congratulations – what he might have expected from Mitchell but didn’t get, his friend being to enmeshed in his own downfall to care enough. Counter that with the way he speaks to Annie and that terribly knowing smile when she leaves him alone in the attic. And the train set. And the Victor. I could go on!
One very striking part of The Longest Day was the strength of writing for the female cast. Obviously Wendy was a new character but Sarah Phelps brought something new to all of them. Cara became a fully realised person – not the slightly simple canteen worker or the killing crazed mad-vamp of series two. She finally showed who she was and her determination to care for her Dark Lord, even to the extent of following him to the enemy camp was touching. When he was so finally nasty to her it broke her heart – and mine too, just a little bit. “Well then. You are nothing.” Could he have said anything any crueller?
Nina’s black and white morality showed a few tinges of grey and her insistence of nurturing the confused, amnesic Uncle Billy despite the horrors it was bound to bring showed a strength she was going to need. She’d never trusted Mitchell but this episode showed her his true colours and the realisation of what he really was literally turned her stomach. Her call to the hotline (and I’m still convinced that was Lia’s voice) was the final piece removed from the Honolulu House Jenga – it’s all about to topple.
Annie also found strength that had nothing to do with bringing the house down around their ears. Her journey through the episode from ditzy Annie, poring over Nina’s scan and cooking celebratory Eton Mess through to the guts to challenge Herrick and to deal with Mitchell’s vileness and rejection. To me it was clear she disapproved of Nina’s treatment of Wendy and her frustration at not being able to do more to comfort her than move the tissues into reach was palpable. And nicely balanced with her disgust at the state of her car!
George was – mostly – the voice of reason, once he’d got over the understandable shock of seeing the man he’d torn to pieces crawling about in front of him. Mitchell was the voice of – well, it tempting to say madness. It’s the point at which his downwards trajectory really start to pick up speed and his instinctive reaction to stake Herrick is curious. Was it a natural abhorrence for something he thought could never happen, Herrick resurrected? Had he been relishing his freedom from Herrick’s web just a little too much? George started to side with his friend but Nina made him see he was acceding to murder and it was almost enough to tun him against Mitchell. Or would he really have cast him out? If he’d know just what was due to happen next he may have done. Having Herrick ensconced in the attic started a chain of decisions that were downright idiotic, even by Mitchell’s standards! He put them all at risk, that bumbling confused man in the pjs – and then he sat back and let them tighten their own nooses. A string of coincidence or pure evil? Well, what do you think?!
If I wish for one thing, if I could time travel back I’d have liked Sarah Phelps to have written more for Being Human. The episode that springs to mind is 4.06 Puppy Love – I’d love to have seen what she could have done with Cutler and I just know she’d have made characters like Golda and Allison more rounded. Oh well. It was not to be.
I’ve probably said all this before – and probably will again but even beyond Being Human this is a very special hour of television. I reviewed it here when it first came out and then went back over it in more detail when I wrote my book A Guide to Being Human but even after all that watching which left it engraved in my brain forever I can still watch it and see something new or something that makes me go “Ahhh…” or even “Oh!” (and occasionally “WTF??!”)
Oh! And final thought – the brilliant Bazza and his undoubted diagnostic expertise in all matters psychological. “Doo-twatting-lally.” Nail on the head there mate!
Here’s the ‘Behind the Scenes’ clip from the BBC Blog – and as a bonus Dirge by Death in Vegas. It’s such a brilliant choice, the building tension is perfectly set off by the music.
And after all, it’s going to be the most perfect day.
The last series. Ever. At all. (Probably.) (Probably definitely.)
Same house, same vampire, same werewolf, same swirly carpet. New ghost. New stains on said swirly carpet. The Cafe on the Corner is no more (long live Fanny and her Rest Stop) and instead we have the Barry not-so-Grand Hotel. God only knows what Trip Advisor makes of it!
“Clean, reasonably priced, slight smell of brimstone. Service rather variable.”
New baddie, in fact a capital letters Big Bad, assorted new vamps/ghosts/werewolves and some things we always knew we’d never see. Or so Toby ‘Pants On Fire’ Whithouse said. And no. Not Damien Molony’s nipples, although they were unduly prominent throughout the six (yes a whole six) episodes..
This is a tough one to think through – if you read my reviews you probably realise this isn’t my favourite series although there was much to like. And some to like a lot. And too much that I didn’t like as much… But that’s a discussion I’ll have with myself on another day and in another post. So I’m not thinking about the parts I struggled with but just the good stuff, the bits that made me laugh and wonder and ponder and that felt like ‘my’ Being Human.
So… in the oh so traditional no particular order…
Rook finding new uses for the humble pen. Eye eye…
Whispering in their ear to persuade people to kill themselves in increasingly horrible ways. Nice skill. I’m very, very slightly jealous of that…
The Devil on the battlefield drinking a nice cup of tea from his flask while seated in a deckchair. How terribly British. Shame he didn’t have a knotted hankie on his head. Although I suppose it gets caught in his horns.
Toby (PoF) Whithouse (not Tony Whitehouse as my spellchecker seem determined to insist) himself as the Home Secretary – although the suit did seem keen to take all the limelight! Maybe not the tour de force of an acting performance that we’d expect but as he’d always said he wouldn’t be in it it did made me smile. And I really wish he had waved at the camera.
Some great value guests. Ricky Grover’s Bobby was funny and sad and touching and gone too soon, Kathryn Prescott was straight in with a wonderful portrayal of lonely Natasha, desperate to impress her rescuer Rook, that had all the depth that was missing from other characters like… No. I said I wasn’t going there. Alex’s dad in the final episode was a bitter-sweet turn by Gordon Kennedy and brought a lot of background to Alex’s character – but perhaps too little too late. Lots of good stuff there to get your teeth into – as opposed to those who got their teeth into the scenery…
Learning Victorian slang – dollymop and flapdragon. Rude!
The Men with Sticks and the Men with Ropes – my first thought was is everyone behind the doors an ex-soap star? I thought they all moved to Newcastle but it’s clearly just a code for Purgatory. And wouldn’t it be fab if your door opened to the Easties Duff Duff Duffs…
I’ve always been curious about TMWSaTMWR (WBBFOTBBW) (to be pedantic) but Toby said he’d never show them as they are far scarier in our imagination. He was right but even without being utterly terrifying I liked Martin Hancock’s brief appearance as The Leader. (Insert your own spider and web jokes here) (Why should I do all the work?) I could have done without the swirly whirly picture stuff though – did someone get a new effects programme for their birthday? The Leader was more chilling without them and good writing and acting makes the effects superfluous. Save the money – it could have paid to put a tuck in the Home Secretary’s suit…
The scene between Alex and Hal in the Barry Island bandstand which confirmed to me that Kate Bracken is one of the most promising finds amongst the BH alumni.
Nice use of lots of bits of Tredegar House as a location – although Lady Mary and Alex chatting in Herrick’s 1933 Paris hotel room was a little disconcerting to the sharp-eyed. Location wise this was the best – the hotel was suitably naff and nasty and not unlike so many others and HH is just HH but nothing else really stood out as intriguing this year. Hal was undoubtedly horrified at how dreadfully common it all was. Although Tom took Natasha to Cutler’s smart, gothic/modern restaurant. Which is also where the trio went for supper in THAT extra scene. So presumably they either get a cracking discount or it’s the only joint in town… I wonder if they had the Shiraz or the Merlot?
The Devil’s monologues and speeches. All of them. Wonderfully done by the marvellous Phil Daniels and extra special kudos for the final one over the emergency broadcast channels. Probably up there with my favourite speeches in all five series of Being Human. I agree with him as well – we humans really do fuck stuff up big style. And speaking of which – speeches not fuck ups – this one was the push for me to make this series’ choice.
In the end it wasn’t a hard choice to make. It had to be the last one and to be totally honest because it was the last one. To be fair it had some cracking moments and sadly some right clunkers. It also had me throwing things at the TV during the fake sunshine happy-ever-after interlude. But I got over that when the bleak realisation dawned. Yes I know – I’m happier when it’s dark! It wasn’t such a bad end to a show that I did – and still do – love. Even though this series tested that love to the limits. However, given that I am notoriously commitment phobic in every way that counts I suppose five series might always have been pushing the faith a bit!
If only it weren’t for that damned DVD extra.
But that’s a whole different story for another time…
In the meantime one more post in this series – my best bit of all the best bits. Or all the best bits that count in these blogs anyway!
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The series five trailer – well, the first series five trailer before what we all know was finally and formally confirmed that it would be the last one. Another, revised trailer swiftly followed – which – of course – made it all better. A little like putting a novelty Mr Men sticking plaster on the remains of an amputated limb…
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single vampire in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a bite”*
* quotes this week courtesy of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. (That one is adapted slightly – in case you haven’t read the book! Don’t expect vampires…)
An episode that is running to stand still. The main apocalyptic (presumably) series arc is filed away and the Devil takes a night off. Hooves up, nice mug of hot brimstone, chance to catch up with Vogue and the Radio Times… Very little of Mr Rook and no Crumb or fellow geek Alan so that plan is on hold too.
Instead we get a glimpse of the bonds (or not) between the house-mates, some interaction with their own species and a test of their togetherness – if they really can hold together and stay good. Or keeping Hal good anyway… That’s all very well and it’s done with some aplomb but this is series five! You’ve been banging on about this stuff for five series. We get it! Really we do. In a series – a final series at that – of only six episodes it feels indulgent.
I do rather wonder if the chance of Julian Barrett as a guest came up and the storyline was fitted around him. I suppose it also saves money not to have all your big names in one basket – sorry, episode Not that saving money would be a consideration of course….
“Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility”
If the devil gets all the best tunes then the vampires get all the best stories. There’s a serious tale to be told of a boy brought up as a wolf by a man who wasn’t his father but I doubt we’ll get to hear it. And I suspect that Michael Socha will continue to be underused which is a shame. Even in a theoretically WW centered episode he didn’t get much to do and Larry turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. An interesting prospect but yet another character not fully fleshed out.
Speaking of which I’ve admired Steven Robertson as an actor for some years and am trying very hard to admire Mr Rook. With his track record in playing some spine chillingly evil men I’m disappointed to see him turn into a cheap rate Basil Fawlty. The radio destroying was yet another attempt to make a good character look a clown which is becoming a feature of this series.. Please stop. It was funny in an obvious way but I just thought it was out of step with what we know of Rook. His rage is violent yes but cold and rather calculated. I don’t think he’s a man who likes to look anything other than in control.
Although control may have been at issue when he spewed out all his problems to a voice on the phone. The Samaritans? Vampire Killers Anonymous? No. A sex line. When she finally got a word in edgewise and offered to tell him what she was wearing he stretched himself out quite comfortably on the window sill in anticipation. There were a lot of windows out there. Is our Dominic a bit of a show off on the quiet?
We didn’t find out much new about McNair and Tom, we already knew McNair was a surveyor (and had terrible taste in shoes) – even Herrick knew that. We did find out that Tom was saving up for a headstone. That’s slightly curious as he buried his Pop in the woods and a headstone may look a little random. I can’t image he got planning permission…
“Our scars make us know that our past was for real”
There was one truly heartfelt moment. Tom acknowledging that his father wanted to be proud of him and that he knew deep down that he wasn’t being the son he wanted. McNair’s last wish – for Tom to put his old life behind him – was far from becoming a reality. Could Hal ever help him with that? No. And after Hal? Maybe…
Larry managed the time-honoured role of pushing in between Hal and Tom admirably and his comment about Hal not wanting to help Tom did seem to hit home. For a moment. Hal did a decent job of trying to reconsider, trying to help Tom but does he really want to? I think he quite likes to have someone to feel superior to. It fits his pattern rather nicely – Cutler, Fergus, Lady Mary and now Tom. That innate Vampire problem with self-esteem – nope, I’ve never seen it either!
“A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment”
Lady Mary was a decent BBC3 staple – bit of a chav, copious drinking, bit of fighting and sex in toilets. Except she’s dressed like a cake decoration and she’s a ghost. It’s all a bit like Sasha the zombie – she misbehaved, horrified the housemates and came to a reluctant understanding and friendship with Annie. Lady Mary does much the same – ending with a companionship with Alex. They even have a night out – although at least Sasha pulled. Sort of, anyway and it was so very sad compared to LM getting her ghostly rocks off in the loo. Both Annie and Nina and now Alex were left with their Lesson of the Week but does Alex really take the fact that Hal can lie convincingly for 250 years seriously enough? Like Larry, Lady Mary was all up front – pretty soon the courtly manners are dropped and she is exactly what you see. Mad, crazed and out of control. Sasha also seemed initially a stereotype – a right lovely rugby WAG, right down to her stripper heels but she had depths that Lady Mary sadly lacked.
“Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how”
And why was she so stupid? Why are they all so bloody dumb this year? Did she really believe she kept Hal clean when he popped up in a cravat once a year? And how did that work exactly? I can’t imagine him explaining that one to Leo and Pearl – they kept him pretty much locked up to avoid temptation. They’d have also twigged pretty instantly that he was lying and I’m sure that wasn’t on his list. In his Bad Hal times he wouldn’t – to paraphrase what LM herself might say – give a flying fuck about some ancient old bint in a frock. It wouldn’t even have amused him to string her along given he had no idea why she was still lingering. Plot holes and heffalump traps…
I know Larry was annoying, more than annoying but his comments to Mary were fairly mild and the explosion of violence and the rather nifty knife to testicles incident promised an darkness that was never really delivered. Except perhaps to Larry’s underpants… Clean kecks for Mr Chrysler please!
The mind control stake fight gave Tom the chance for some neat physical comedy – very carefully one step short of walking into the wind or fighting an invisible box. Why didn’t Mary just kill Hal though? Does everyone have to monologue their plans nowadays? It’s like a virus – spreads like wildfire. And why didn’t Hal just let her? If we believe the words he recycles about being so sick of being a monster then why not just let go? No, he’s a vampire and he knows by surviving he’ll kill. I think he already accepts that without much struggle – after all, the table lamp’s still warm.
Lady Mary doesn’t get her door so she’s still around. Somewhere. Which is another point – why aren’t the MWSAMWR after her? 250 years? They must have noticed.
Was there any reason at all for Hal to wear that monstrosity of a dressing gown? Is there a worry that if deprived of the nipples the Hal fans may revolt without a bit of flesh? Do knees count? Cat sick mustard paisley is a friend to no one. I could feel the static off that polyester through my TV! I suspect it was a bet…
“Angry people are not always wise”
Hal’s speech in the woods to Tom was moving – trying to convince him that he could control the monster, fight it with him. Tom didn’t believe it and he’s probably cannier than Hal thinks. Popping off home to kill the man who made your mate cry probably isn’t the best way to show your humanity.
It does put Hal in Rook’s debt though – which is going to make things interesting.
I’m not sure quite why this episode didn’t gel with me – it wasn’t a bad hour of television, it was decent enough fare but for me it wasn’t a good hour of Being Human and isn’t going to make the list of favourites. I expect more. I’m still finding the characters too one-dimensional and the humour too broad. I’m hoping to be pulled back into it next week.
“I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve”
It has given me a few thoughts about where we end up. Alex’s unfinished business doesn’t seem to be resolving itself very quickly and I’m starting to go back to point A – Hal. Ending Hal, revenging herself and the world on him for all his misdeeds is the UFB. Here’s an off the wall theory – maybe the devil ends up trapped in Hal’s body by the trinity and Alex kills them both. She passes over, Tom gets a happy(ish) ever after and the world is short one devil. It’ll be all pink clouds and fluffy bunnies… or fluffy clouds and pink bunnies…
Kill me now.
“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense”
Whose words could these be? So many choices…
random musings…
What is it with werewolves and cross dressing?
How did Hal get Rook’s mobile number? He only wrote the archive coordinates on the Barry Grand Hotel coaster. I think Hal must be moonlighting on the sex line…
Why were people walking round Alex and Mary in the bar? They’re ghosts, they should have passed through them.
Cracking programme of talks at the Barry Grand… Unmissable.
I liked Hal’s blank jigsaw although the pieces were pretty big, almost toddler sized! How on earth was he timing himself with a chess clock though? It doesn’t work like that.
Vicarious sex in a toilet cubicle with two strangers. Is that any odder than vicarious sex with the man you love and his casual pick up?
Was anyone kicking themselves that the toxic WW blood bombshell last year meant that Had couldn’t munch on Larry?
Lady Mary’s UNF was something about library books… The same library books Mitchell was so worried about?
Did anyone else notice that the dining room where Alex and Mary talked was the room that doubled as Paris 1933 in series three? The most gorgeous room ever seen on Being Human when dressed in its art deco finery. And Herrick. Dressed in his art deco finery…
Actually Tredegar House has proved to be eminently versatile. So far it’s masqueraded as Paris 1933, Richmond 1845, Northern France 1918 and now the present stately home and gardens of Lady Mary, complete with horsey swings and a random installation of soggy blogger extras.
Knocking people over because their shoes are awful? Doesn’t everyone do that? No? Just me then…
“It must be over fifty years since I last killed a human for blood.” Interesting phrasing… and we have no idea at all how many he’s killed for other reasons, or how many werewolves or other non-humans. Anyone got an abacus?
“You utter wanker.”
Yup. Can’t argue with that.
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The best things in life are free. What?! Shoes are free…?
We’ve had frantic, we’ve had touching and this week it’s all about the funny. Probably the best collection of quotable lines in one episode!
A flashback to 1855 (lots of 5s in this series) and some rather clever location scouting – a staircase, some pictures, two and a half costumes and it all looks quite convincing. Oh and some SERIOUSLY dodgy fake hair… History tells us Fergus and Hal were at war, the Crimean War presumably and home on leave. (Please don’t tell me Florence Nightingale is a vampire…) Fergus thinks ‘they’ are scared of Hal – he lists Wyndam, Ivan and Hetty, names we know and then Jacob who we don’t. Mr Snow, of course, would not be scared… You can guess who Mr Snow is. Really, you can! He seems most surprised about Hetty – it strikes me she’s scared of very little.
“And if you do start eating people, we’ll just have to try something else”
In contrast to bloodied Hal, we have harpsichord Hal, rigidly keeping to his list, not caring much that Annie and Tom have resorted to ghostly shoplifting to keep Eve in Huggies. But it’s OK, McNair said it doesn’t count if it’s a big shop. Right. I presume he means a large organisation and not a long list.
Putting Tom and Hal in the cafe together was inspired, Hal’s deadpan despair and the perfectly squared cloth action for cleaning tables were totally in character and Tom’s well meant help and suggestions came across as genuine (except for the spare stake of course!) I could rhapsodise about the nuanced comedy, the lovely lines, the little glances, the picking up of Nuts with a glove… but I hardly need to as you’ve watched it yourself. Haven’t you? Then you’ll know how funny it was and I can move on!
It was cute to see Hal and Tom slowly beginning to bond, have they realised yet that maybe they aren’t so different? Tom is naive and young in many ways but in others he’s old before his time. Hal is certainly old but having been sequestered away for 50 years he’s out of time too. Tom’s old-fashioned courtesy and Hal’s olde worlde manners (which presumably slip somewhat when hunting!) put them both out of step with modern life. Both spent so much time in isolation – albeit with people who loved them – maybe they can find the right way to exist in the now together. (And can that existence exclude that frankly indigestible looking cheeseburger…)
It’s worth remembering that when we saw George and Mitchell in the pilot they already had an established friendship and so short cuts and assumptions could be made. We accepted they were best friends because Toby told us they were. Here we are seeing Hal and Tom find their friendship – they are forging those bonds in front of us and it’s very convincing. The camaraderie – still a little wary – was unspoken but right there by the time the Antiques Roadshow came on. (BTW – what was that vase worth??!) When they naturally included Annie in their deliberations the pleasure in her face was clear – she’s the bond, the glue, both to the past and the future as well as the link between the boys and that they want her there means a lot. Annie’s fear of being alone has receded again. But for how long?
“Are you taking the piss?” “Well, they started it”
I wasn’t sure about Regus on first look but he played a blinder in this one and let’s face it, you have to love a vampire in a Team Edward T-shirt! Regus is a vamp-geek, a vamp-nerd or maybe just a bit of a sad-vamp. He has vampire asthma, reads mildewed scrolls in basements, puts pin-up posters on his bedsit wall, has a largely imaginary sex life, a varied collection of T-shirts for all occasions and – worse of all – his lunch fights back. I want to feel sorry for him, really I did, but I’m doing about as well as Annie did in trying to keep a straight face after their in-tents experience. (I’m sorry. I’ll get my coat…)
Regus seems to have warmed to Annie, despite her love of a good doorstep row – and he’s willing to trade. Let’s not revisit the weirdest sex scene I’ve seen for a while except to say that if that’s Annie’s first BF he must be the one who posted nude pictures of her on the internet. Well… lets kind of hope they were of her and not of Regus – actually let’s not hope or even think about this at all!!
Once he’d tucked his vulnerability back in his trousers Regus did ‘fess up to what he’d found. A nemesis. Well, of course – you have to have a nemesis. With a burnt arm – if you interpret literally, which would be too easy. Could be a fire arm, a weapon, could be a bit of a suntan – which may rule out a vampire unless they hit the FakeBake. And just what is Tom cooking up with the used chip fat? Fire? Flames?
Before he headed off with his home-made girlfriend in a haze of hopeful anticipation we did get a (slightly spurious) reason why Regus would want to save the child he thinks will destroy his race. He doesn’t want to see 400 years of work wasted and it’s two fingers up to the cooler vampires who never really took him seriously. Do you think he may have had his head flushed at some point back in Stoker Exports?
“You’re not very good at being a vampire, are you?”
Michaela – goth girl, emo chick, would be poet, generally all round irritating ‘look at me – gosh I’m soooo weird’ type. Caricature? Yes. Cliché? Yes. Funny? Undoubtedly – although she trod a very fine line. A glove on one hand might – might? – be a pretension but could it be covering something? A burnt arm maybe?
She may be a parody but haven’t we all met a Michaela? Somehow she and Regus gel and the passing remark from Hal, asking Annie if she ever met Ivan and Daisy may bode well for them. Or may not. I really have no idea!
“I know who you are”
Fergus gets a chance to show off this week – firstly in the flashback with echoes of the genial evil that Herrick did so well and then just plain scary when he find Annie and Eve in the park. A busy day for him, in no time at all he tracks down Hal by the bins. His reaction to Hal is interesting – he kneels to him, calls him Lord. In jest? In homage? Could be either – he’s certainly very keen to get Hal back on side and he offers him power. For Fergus having Hal in charge is the obvious solution, he seems to have no claim to take that place for himself. It’s hard to say if Hal is truly tempted – Fergus has no doubt that he’s back on his side but Hal double crosses him and stakes him. Damn. I was starting to rather like Fergus, now he’s in the Hoover. I suppose at least you’d always know where he was… (I’m trying very hard to avoid doing the “stake ‘n’ vac” here.)
What was interesting is that it was never clear which side Hal was on until the crunch. Now that’s worrying. Tom and Annie seem convinced he’s with them but can they really be sure. That tiny slip about the Old Ones, Hal says he needs to be there to greet them, hastily corrected to being there to face them, makes me wonder. Hal is 500 years old, unimaginably old. Is it all about him? Are the other lives just a detail, something in the way of him either saving or killing Eve to save or end the vampires.
Hal killed Fergus – ostensibly to protect Eve after being utterly convincing that he was back in black, as Herrick would put it. But why? Was it really to protect Eve or to protect himself? Fergus knows him, and knows him well – they go way, way back. What might Fergus have known that Hal wants kept secret – maybe he just doesn’t want to relive those blood soaked days but is there more to it than that?
The acting honours this week were fairly evenly shared but the award (there isn’t an award) goes to Damien Molony and Michael Socha for their budding bromance. Completely convincing and rather sweet in how they protected and stood up for each other – while still competing! Lenora Crichlow was great – her reactions to Regus were spot on throughout and her not watching the tent experience (just like she didn’t watch Lauren’s vamp snuff film) and her efforts to keep a straight face were impossible not to like. I’ve noticed that Lenora always raises her game when working with, shall we say, a more established actor. With Mark Williams she matched him look for look and line for line – just as she did when working with Bryan Dick as Sykes and in her rare scenes with Jason Watkins. I’d love to see her really stretched, her scenes with the younger cast are still perfectly competent but more relaxed, although that may be deliberate.
So we end with Tom and Hal, the start of a friendship, the start of trust between them. Annie trusts them and between them she thinks they can keep Eve safe. Find a life together – the four of them.
Nice thought.
So not going to happen…
“Sometimes it leaves me positively giddy”
Random musings
That’s not bloody Aldi – that’s Waitrose…
Fergus joked about how scared the other vampires are of the War Child, he didn’t get it and he had a knife pointed at her. Maybe she got her revenge? Maybe it was Eve who deflected the knife not Annie…
£1.50 for a cheeseburger? OK it looks pretty awful but damn, that’s cheap!
A very neat switch over from The Real Hustle to the boy’s new show of choice.
Somewhere between episode one and three the demise of vampires switched from cracking into smoke to dropping into dust. Curious. New type of vampire or new type of special effects budget?
Where was DickSplash, sorry, Cutler? Missing the sarcasm…
Does anyone REALLY think Tom is building a swimming pool?
I’m still laughing at “And I had a shield. A red one”
Of course I’m excited but in a distinct contrast to this time last year I can’t help wondering if I already know too much. I could have avoided all the interviews and speculation but no – I’m far too nosy and have no self-control at all! There are a lot of spoilers out there and I’m going to talk about them here so if you want to know nothing, nada, total anticipatory ignorance about series three – then STOP READING RIGHT NOW!! (but please come back later)
Gone? Good… now let’s talk secrets
Going back a year we’d had some hints about series two. We’d seen the CenSSA broadcasts and met the lovely Lloyd, all perky and plausible and not pervy at all. Ivan and Daisy had their prequel which teased us with baby vamps and gave us such a bum steer on little Molly. Clever. Toby Whithouse had already told us the threat this time was human and we knew Herrick was chopped liver (or so we thought!) None of that gave away the details of the plot – who could have guessed the Lucy/Professor Jaggat reveal and the real truth of Kemp’s obsessions?
So what do we know this time? There are some interesting nuggets in the BBC press pack and there are a number of features and interviews that give away all the carefully crafted hints dropped like rare pearls by Toby Whithouse himself. There are far more spoilers out there than I can list here – these are just the ones that intrigue me.
Herrick is back but… is he the Herrick we remember? Aidan Turner has already let slip that Herrick has lost his memory and Jason Watkins confirms it. Herrick is back in the 19th century – I’ve always suspected that Herrick was truly old and I can’t wait to find out more. It’s great that Jason Watkins is back and you have to admire a man who can get ‘discombobulated’ into an interview…
What about George? He killed Herrick – a life changing moment for him, and part of the reason why Nina was scratched. He has dealt with this (sort of) but to see Herrick back after all that trauma – well, it must be odd to say the least! He’s also worried about Mitchell – does he actually know, or really want to know, just how dark and bloody Mitchell’s life became back in Bristol?
Lots of werewolf action to come, including a werewolf father and son, practically a whole new pack. Maybe this will rattle Nina and George’s happy ever after (as if…) and make them consider the potential patter of tiny paws. Now, I’ve thought about this – yes, really – and can’t see how a female werewolf can have a child, after all her body dies and reforms every month. Although Lord Toby will undoubtedly find a way around such inconvenient physiological issues if that is what is required!
We’ve been teased with “a very macabre thing that the vampires do to werewolves”. It turns out that a great vampire night out is watching a human/werewolf cage fight. No worse than humans watching werewolves explode, I suppose, and at least it’s honest. Not all neatly wrapped up as the work of God and for a higher purpose (and our own good…)
It’s pretty clear that Mitchell does successfully rescue Annie from purgatory – after all we’ve seen her room in Honolulu Heights! He has Stacey Slater’s help and she’s definitely a woman not to be thwarted. Lia does have a dark prediction for Mitchell though and it’s something truly life – or more correctly death changing. She is someone from Mitchell’s past – more dark secrets? I suppose a century of vampirism must give you an extensive back catalogue of exes, deaths and various dark and nefarious deeds!
We’re also promised a zombie who gives Annie yet another of those awful lessons in eternity that she seems to get at every turn. Not to mention a social worker – now there’s a challenge! – and an Annie/Mitchell hook up. I suppose that has been brewing for a while and Nina and George nesting will probably push them together. It’s rather obvious that Nina has never liked Mitchell much. You just know that he is refered to as ‘that friend of yours’ when being blamed for everything! Mitchell and Annie romantically involved is not the way I would take them but an undead/dead relationship is not likely to be easy going. Par for the course for Annie though – she’s dated a murderer (Owen), an attempted murderer (Saul) so a mass murderer is a logical progression. (And I thought I made some dodgy choices!)
I’m sure Toby has kept some surprises back for us and I can’t wait to see how it all pans out. I’m really keen to see what happens to Mitchell – we’re used to his tortured soul and after the Box Tunnel ‘incident’ he’s bound to be even more furrowed of brow and constantly peering through his hair! Not to mention the slight problem that Aidan Turner is off to Hobbit-land to be a dwarf – could Mitchell face his end?
This time the threat is from within, from themselves says Toby Whithouse – and he should know!
There are lots of guest stars already trailed for series three and I’ll come back to them… watch this space!
And finally the full version of Cat Steven’s 1972 single I Can’t Keep It In as heard on the S3 Being Human trailer (with proper 70’s crackling vinyl!) Go on – sing along, you know you want to!