Your Favourite Vampire Show

It seems as though Vampires are fashionable at the moment and everyone wants to cash-in on that success. At the cinemas there’s the Twilight franchise that has seen many a teenager fallout with their friends over whose fitter; Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner. On television there’s The Vampire Diaries and True Blood – so it’s hard to escape the vampires that are everywhere. So this week we are asking you to pick your favourite vampire series but we’ve not just included current ones, oh no, we’ve got classics such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ultraviolet for you to chose from too.

The critically acclaimed and award winning HBO series from writer Alan Ball, who created Six Feet Under, which is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris. True Blood is set two years after vampires have come “out the closet” so to speak and are living openly among humans. It’s named True Blood after the synthetic blood they drink instead of feeding on humans. The series is set in America, in the deep south, in the small town of Bon Temps and centres on the relationship between Sookie [Anna Paquin] and Bill [Stephen Moyer]. Vampires aren’t the only creatures to feature in True Blood though with a whole array of other nasties cropping up as well – mixed in with plenty of sex scenes and one or two gory murders. It also has one fantastic theme tune and title sequence and well anything by Alan Ball is worth watching in our book!

Camp, gothic-horror show from the producers of Dante’s Cove – a supernatural series dealing with a coven of witches and over-sex gay men. The Lair is sort of a spin-off from Dante’s Cove but revolving around ancient vampires instead of witches. The Lair is a gay sex-club run by a coven of Vampires who are responsible for a series of murders which leads journalist Tom [David Moretti] to the doors of The Lair. The series has so far run for three seasons in America and airs on Here TV!, a channel aimed firmly at gay audiences. The first season was released in the, on DVD, earlier this year and the second season has just hit the shops. Sexy, camp, trashy and fun, The Lair is a new take on the vampire genre and is a show that doesn’t really take itself too seriously.

Supernatural Sky One drama series that covered fallen angels, witches, demonic fairies, lesbian ghosts, gay ghosts, the anti-Christ and the end of the world all in the space of two seasons and 19 episodes. Hex was set in an English boarding school and revolved around Cassie McBain [Christina Cole] being stalked by Azazeal, the leader of the fallen angels – Nephilim, a cross between a vampire and an angel. As Azazeal continues to stalk Cassie she discovers she is the last in a long line of witches and her best friend, Thelma [Jemima Rooper], dies and comes back as a ghost. The first season ended with Cassie being pregnant to Azazeal’s child, the Anti-Christ who would bring about the ‘end of days’. The second season saw Cassie killed off and Ella Dee [Laura Pyper]  arrive to try and kill Malachi, the anti-Christ, but in the end she failed and the End of Days began. As well as all the supernatural elements the series also dealt with love, homosexuality, binge-drinking, affairs, drug taking and murder along the way.

As with True Blood this television series has been adapted from a series of novels, of the same name by L.J Smith, by Kevin Williamson and airs on The CW. The teen-drama series has proved a huge hit for The CW as it cashes in on the Twilight boom and appeals very much to the same audience. The series follows the life of Elena [Nina Dobrev] who falls in love with a vampire [Paul Wesley] but also may fancy the vampire’s brother [Ian Somhalder]. When we ran a ‘Who’s Fitter’ of the Vampire Diaries boys a few weeks back it was a very close run thing as you found it hard to pick between all the hunks in the cast. Such is the success of The Vampire Diaries that The CW has ordered a second season as the show continues to attract the highest audience figures for the broadcaster.

Obviously no look at vampires on television would be complete without covering this series; the show that kicked started the vampire genre back into life and re-wrote the book of codes and conventions in Sci Fi. Buffy Summers [Sarah Michelle Gellar] was an ordinary teenage girl who attended high-school, hanged out with her friends, argued with her mum and oh slayed vampires by night. Vampires weren’t the only evils that Buffy fought in the first season alone she also battled a large praying mantis disguised as a human, a witch who had swapped bodies with her daughter and a pack of human hyenas. Along the way she meets the mysterious Angel [David Boreanaz] who is revealed as a vampire with a soul and battles the Master, leader of the local coven of vampires, and Angel’s sire, Darla [Julie Benz]. As Buffy progressed across the year’s vampires always remained a firm part of it with the introduction of Spike [James Marsters] and Drusilla, old pals of Angels, and other such characters across its seven year run. Buffy didn’t just slay vampires she bedded them as well having both Angel and Spike at different points.

After three years helping Buffy defeat all kinds of evil, and turning evil himself and needing to be defeated, Angel left Sunnydale and headed to Los Angeles to help the folks in the big city. Vampire with a soul Angel was ‘aided’ by Cordelia [Charisma Carpenter] who evil Angel had tried to kill. Angel is a tale of redemption as the character tries to atone for his past crimes but they come back to haunt him as sire Darla is resurrected and Drusilla and Spike both turn up at various points. In the fifth and final season Spike, who turned good during the course of Buffy, became a regular cast member. The fifth season ended on a cliff-hanger which has yet to be resolved as Angel was cancelled even though audience levels rose across its run.

A short-lived British series which aired on Channel Four and was written and directed by Joe Ahearne. The series revolves around a government funded unit, which is alluded to have connections to the Roman Catholic Church, which battles a worldwide vampire conspiracy – although the word vampire isn’t actually used during the series. The series ran for just six episodes but is fondly remembered by fans and critics alike. An American spin-off was developed for television in 2000 with at least one actor from the British series reprising their role but the idea never progressed beyond a pilot made for executives.

Another short-lived Vampire series from America which ran for 16 episodes between 2007 and 2008. The series was presented as a new twist on the vampire genre as it was more of a romance story than anything else. The series revolves around Private Detective and Vampire Mick [Alex O’Loughlin] who falls for mortal Beth [Sophia Myles]. Mick had been turned into a vampire by his wife Caroline [Shannyn Sossamon] on their wedding night fifty years ago. The story dealt with Mick’s relationship with Beth, Caroline, other vampires and his investigations. The pilot didn’t go down well with critics but rated well enough for broadcasters CBS to commission a weekly series however, production halted due to the writers’ strike. It was announced a few weeks ago that The CW had acquired the repeat rights to Moonlight and was planning to repeat it this summer pairing it up with The Vampire Diaries.