Being Human Comes to BBCAmerica

If you think your roommates are bad, try living with a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf! It’s the BBC series Being Human and it’s coming to America on July 25.

Being Human is a quirky mix of daily living comedy with the angst of the paranormal drama.

Here’s the lowdown:

George (Russell Tovey) and Mitchell (Aidan 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 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 circumstances, 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 and 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 (Lenora Crichlow) is chatty, insecure and desperate for company and now that death has separated them, she longs for her fiancé, 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.

Like all supernaturally-based TV shows, producer Matthew Bouch and writer Toby Whithouse had to find a way of making fantastical creatures function in the real world.

“We had to re-imagine how these supernatural creatures would be if they really did exist. We have very real and human characters with adult dilemmas, placed in a fantasy context,” says Matthew.

Toby concurs, “Jason Watkins in the role of Herrick looks incredibly normal and human, but as soon as he starts speaking, he gives across this undercurrent of evil, ambition and cruelty.  We wanted to give the vampires a much more convincing and realistic cover story. 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.”

Mark your calendars for the US premiere of Being Human, Saturday, July 25 on BBCAmerica.

Photo: BBC