Vampires, zombies and lavish special effects will hit primetime screens in this six-part series. It's scheduled for the early evening in the family viewing slot that is fought over by high-concept series such as the BBC's Doctor Who and Merlin, as well as ITV's own dinosaur adventure, Primeval.
Philip Glenister, star of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, heads the cast as Rupert Galvin, a mysterious American with a zero-tolerance attitude to ‘half-life’ creatures around London.
Christian Cook, who has appeared in Doctor Who, is Rupert’s teenage godson, Luke, whose father died in strange circumstances when Luke was a toddler.
Dracula's Arch-Enemy
Rupert appears and reveals that Luke’s destiny, as the last descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula’s arch-enemy, is to smash the half-lives still haunting the streets.
Also giving the series youth appeal will be Holliday Grainger, familiar to Waterloo Road viewers, as Luke’s best friend, Ruby, and Zoe Tapper as beautiful Mina Harker.
Villains come in the form of vampire Gladiolus Thrip, a pointy-nosed Mackenzie Crook (The Office and Pirates of the Caribbean), and half-man, half-rat Mr Tibbs, played by Kevin McNally. Richard Wilson, seen recently as Gaius in Merlin, plays the sinister Father Simeon.
High-Concept and Fantasy TV
Demons is the latest is the latest series in the trend towards high-concept, fantasy and speculative drama following the success of shows such as Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Survivors, Lost and Heroes.
ITV1 has also made Whitechapel, a modern spin on Jack the Ripper, and a third series of Primeval is coming. Sky has JJ Abrams’ thriller Fringe and the BBC is making, for the second time, the classic John Wyndham story The Day of the Triffids for 2009.
Co-producer Julian Murphy says the lure of the supernatural was simple. ‘The storytelling process allows us to use our imaginations in ways that aren’t acceptable in your average cop show.
Van Helsing's Legacy
‘We focused on the Van Helsing legacy because it gives us a ready-made mythology and that is very important in dramas of this kind. But perhaps the most important inspiration was London itself and the secret world beneath those streets.’
Philip Glenister says, ‘We are making a family supernatural thriller and it is dark in places but there is also humour. Kids love to be scared but at the same time they want to have fun.’
Certainly, special effects and horrific make-up will feature. Glenister, leaving his macho role as Life on Mars’ DCI Gene Hunt firmly behind, says, ‘The prosthetics are astoundingly good, by the same team who did Harry Potter. Martin Hancock plays a character called Redlip. Seeing him on my first day, he freaked me out. Oh my god, I didn’t want to leave my trailer for a week.’
'I've Wanted to Play Someone Bad for a Long Time'
Mackenzie Crook says he was keen to have a go at being the sinister vampire. ‘I’ve wanted to play someone bad for a long time. Thrip is out to get Luke and wants to destroy Mr Galvin along the way.’
Accompanying the series will be Demons: The Game, the main feature on the Demons website, in which players control Luke and try to capture half-lives.
If the show strikes a chill down spines in the way that old series of the imagination did, ITV could have a memorable hit. ‘There used to be a series years ago on ITV called Thriller,’ says Philip Glenister. ‘It was all different stories and one that I remember was this guy gets locked in this house in a chamber and is left there to die. I remember being completely freaked out by it.’
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