Dracula (2019 Mark Gatiss, Steve Moffat)

Jonny Campbell directed the first one, which seems faithful to the novel in its castle opening. Amusingly Claes Bang starts off as an older version of the Count (with the Lugosi accent) but by the time he's refreshed himself on Jonathan Harker (a rather good John Heffernan) he's all handsome and matey, calling him 'Johnny'.

All this is framed by Harker telling the story to a nun, a great character who really makes it work, played by Dolly Wells.

Then episode (film) #2 goes on board ship, where Dracula starts picking off the passengers - a fatally dumb way to go as all we get is neck chomp after neck chomp.. Various well-known people turn up here... until an eye-opening finale in which Dracula appears in modern England.. Which affords some fun in film #3, with Wells reappearing as a Van Helsing descendant, brings in Matthew Beard and Lydia West - all the acting is good, it just drags on and is kinda dull... we were glad to see it finish, frankly.

Shot by Tony Slater-Ling and Julian Court. Directed also by Paul McGuigan and Damon Thomas.

(What the hell's happened to Steve Lawes? Since his heyday shooting Sherlock and Death Comes to Pemberly, he seems to have been relegated to lesser fare such as Keeping Faith and CBBC's Almost Never...)

We weren't very impressed with BBC's Christmas offerings... Didn't make it through Knight's  Christmas Carol.. Feel like Gatiss and Moffat have gone off.