A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a house....
Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but in reality it's the premise of Being Human, one of the most innovative and effective genre shows coming from England that will make its American debut on BBC America on July 25th at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
Mixing the mythic with the commonplace, the farcical with the horrific and the domestic with the epic, Being Human is a witty and extraordinary look into the lives of three twenty-somethings and their secret double-lives -- as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. Russell Tovey (Doctor Who, the History of Boys), Lenora Crichlow (Sugar Rush, Doctor Who) and Aidan Turner (The Clinic) star as housemates trying to live normal live,s despite their strange and dark secrets.
George (Tovey) and Mitchell (Turner) work in anonymous drudgery as hospital porters. They lead lives of quiet desperation under the burden of a terrible secret -- Mitchell's a vampire and George is a werewolf. Deciding to start life afresh and leave behind the dark side, they move into a house, only to find that Annie, the ghost of a woman killed in mysterious circumstnaces, haunts it. As the monster threesome deals with the challenges of their new life together, they're united in their desire to blend in with their human neighbors.
By all appearances, George is a mild-mannered geeky guy, except for one night a month when he's a flesh-hungry, predatory werewolf. Mitchell is good-looking, laid-back and, unlike George, has an easy confidence with the ladies. But he's also suffering withdrawal from the blood he craves. Annie (Crichlow) is chatty, insecure and desperate for company and now that death has separated them, she longs for her fiance, who owns the house she haunts.
But with unwelcome intruders into their world, a threatened revolution from the vampire underworld and constant threats of exposure -- on top of the day-to-day issues faced by young people -- the only thing they may be able to rely on in their heightened world is each other.
"We had to re-imagine how these supernatural creatures would be if they really did exist," offers producer Matthew Bouch. "We have very real and human characters with adult dilemmas, placed in a fantasy context. Being Human has elements of comedy, horror, soap and supernatural. But what makes it a rich mix also makes it potentially quite tricky as you don't want to allow any one of those elements to dominate too much. I think with a combination of Toby's script and the brilliant cast, we've pulled it off."
Adds series creator Toby Whithouse of his storyline, "I like the idea of suggesting that there is some kind of underworld, another life, another story that is going on in the world that we're unaware of; that's hidden. I wrote an episode of Doctor Who a couple of years ago that was set in a school. The Monday after it transmitted I heard reports that teachers were walking out to the front of their class and saying, 'Physics, physics, physics,' which is what the Doctor said. It made the kids wonder if their teachers were really aliens."
Look for much more on Being Human coming soon.