By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
Lenny Rush stars in a spooky comedy based on a book by Eric Morecambe
Year: 2026
In 1982, Eric Morecambe released a wild children’s novel about an unwilling young bloodsucker. It would remain unadapted for film or TV for more than 40 years, until Alan Partridge writers Neil and Rob Gibbons sank their teeth into it, and turned it into a family sitcom with something of the appeal of Ghosts.
The cast is an enjoyable confection, with Tom Davis as proud and slightly stupid vampire patriarch Victor, Sian Clifford as his much sharper wife, Valeeta, and Lenny Rush as Val, the reluctant vampire son of the title – who isn’t at all good at the vampire stuff his dad wants him to do and wants to choose his own path in life instead.
The result is an offbeat but familiar family sitcom set in a castle that was, according to the cast, genuinely quite creepy and certainly very chilly indeed. If you see their breath when they speak, that may not be a special effect. The other thread of the story is to be found in the village, which is full of Little Englanders who don’t always take kindly to the presence of vampires. Understandable, really, and it’s in Val’s ventures into that world that the show’s strongest comedy lies. (Six episodes)
