‘Dracula’ will air over three nights starting on New Year’s Day (01.01.20).
The upcoming adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic horror tale – which has been written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss – will kick off BBC One’s programming for 2020 with an exciting three episode run as Claes Bang takes on the role of Count Dracula himself.
The first instalment ‘The Rules of the Beast’ will hit the small screen at 9pm on January 1, with ‘Blood Vessel’ and ‘The Dark Compass’ following in the same timeslot on subsequent nights.
Ex ‘Sherlock’ chief Gatiss and former ‘Doctor Who’ boss Moffat – who will act as showrunners for the drama – have been hard at work, and the latter previously admitted how difficult it was to work on a project where the lead character is also the villain.
He said: "There’s lots of things that are challenging about ‘Dracula’.
"Having an evil lead character is actually really difficult. That’s been the main challenge I think. But how we’ve handled, that you’ll have to wait and see."
The new adaptation – which will be broadcast on Netflix around the world – starts in Transylvania in 1897, with the bloodthirsty count drawing up plans against Victorian London.
And on Halloween (31.10.19), Gatiss hinted a second series could already been in the pipeline even before the first run has aired.
He teased: "It’s very hard to kill a vampire. Do you know what I mean? What they do is resurrect."
Leading man Bang has also suggested the show will take the classic story in new directions, which means the Mark and Steven could leave things open for a second series.
He previously said: "It is very loyal and true to the novel, and then there is stuff in here that really strays. In a really cool way. And gives you that new take on Dracula.
"Why do one more of those that we already have? They’ve done them brilliantly before. So, we needed something else and something new, and that’s happened here."
BBC’s Dracula airs from New Year’s Day
