TV News: time's up for 24's producer & Glenister smites Demons

Jon Cassar, veteran producer of 24, has decided to quit the hit show, saying: "although it's sad for me to leave after six years, it's also very exciting to be back in the marketplace working with different people and facing different challenges." Cassar already has a new project lined up for CBS called Washington Field.

Philip Glenister has quit Demons, meaning the low-rated ITV series is now even less likely to return. An insider has said: "ITV spent millions on Demons, but things have not worked out. Philip made it clear he would not come back. He's busy filming with a second series of Ashes To Ashes and has other shows in the pipeline." Demons started with an impressive 6 million viewers, but that dropped to 3.4 million over its six episodes.

DEMONS 1.6 – "Nothing Like Nebraska"

The poorly-received fantasy drama limps to its climax, trying desperately to make us care about hero Luke's (Christian Cooke) tragic family history, which you'll very likely have no knowledge of if you missed episode 1. The story has been left to wilt on the vine since then, and "Nothing Like Nebraska" consequently fails to make its audience care about the discoveries Luke makes here. The fact of the matter is, the big revelations were obvious and clichéd from the start...

After Luke is attacked by a "pyromancer" clown called Whoppo (Tim Eagle) during a typically ill-choreographed teaser, a side-effect of exposure to the half-life's luminous green juggling balls (don't ask) results in Luke being given minor psychic powers. This manifests as nightmares about his father's death in a car accident, which he witnessed as a baby from the backseat – only now he remembers seeing an ominous shadowy figure approaching the vehicle after the crash...

The episode essentially revolves around Luke being tricked by Gladiolus Thrip (Mackenzie Crook), the beak-nosed villain from episode 1, who has been resurrected by a local medium called Karen Speedwell (Pauline McLynn). Working together at a séance with Luke in attendance, Thrip poses as Luke's dead father Jay Van Helsing (Thomas Arnold) and persuades him that his godfather Galvin (Philip Glenister) is actually a dangerous half-life – or, "something nasty pretending to be something nice".

That's a phrase that is oft-repeated throughout the episode, not least by Father Simeon (Richard Wilson), who is later murdered. All this leads Luke to accept that his late father is genuinely trying to warn him that Galvin and Mina (Zoë Tapper) are not his friends, they're his enemies. Even best-friend Ruby (Holliday Grainger) isn't fully trusted, as Luke grows closer to Karen Speedwell... unaware that he's being manipulated by Thrip.

To be fair, this was possibly the best episode of Demons, if only because it actually attempted to build on its mythology. It's just a shame the big mystery over the death of Luke's father hasn't been referred to much since the first episode, and no clues were bread-crumbed throughout the past five episodes. Therefore, "Nothing Like Nebraska" carried no real weight to its drama – not helped by the fact Christian Cooke continues to be the least compelling hero in a fantasy drama, perhaps ever. Sulkiness is Luke's base setting, and turning his jacket collar up is about the limit of his "attitude".

Glenister has been a terrible disappointment in this role; Galvin being the total antithesis of the charisma and charm he showed as Gene Hunt in Life On Mars. The trans-Atlantic accent hasn't helped, so quite why this episode decides to have Glenister attempt a Deep South accent (to even less success) is an example of how badly judged Demons often is. Bad decision to reprise Thrip as the lead villain, too – as Crook's performance, while fun, is utterly non-threatening and rather amusing. As a kind of Russell Brand teddyboy, Thrip was a limp and disappointing villain in episode 1, and bookends the series with another inadequate turn. It goes without saying that his eventual demise (at the hands of Mina, in full-vampire mode) is a damp squib, too, as that's been a key feature of every episode's climax.

The only genuine surprise in this episode was the reveal that Jay Van Helsing had become a half-life sympathiser, so Galvin effectively left him to die in his car after rescuing Luke, but vowed never to tell Luke about his father's ignoble end. Trouble is, am I alone in thinking there's a strange, intolerant message being sent to young audiences? Jay effectively wanted humans and half-lives to cooperate and live together in peace – and is that such a bad, unachievable dream? Did Jay deserve to die for wanting to unite both species? Isn't Galvin a bit too narrow-minded in branding Jay a traitor and letting him burn to death in a car?

Overall, while this was a great deal easier to watch than previous episodes, the finale was primarily undone by the absence of a strong foundation, constructed in previous episodes. Couldn't Luke have been given these psychic nightmares a few episodes back? Why couldn't the "something nasty pretending to be something nice" buzz-phrase have been sprinkled throughout the whole series, a la Doctor Who? This all felt very anticlimactic -- and the series, as a whole, was a creatively bankrupt mess. And no, I have no idea what the coda (with Mina hunched on a rooftop in vampire guise) was all about either. I doubt there will be a second series to find out, thankfully. Demons will hopefully be "smited" by ITV bosses post-haste.


7 February 2009
ITV1, 7.50pm

Writer: Peter Tabern
Director: Matthew Evans

Cast: Philip Glenister (Galvin), Christian Cooke (Luke), Zoë Tapper (Mina), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Mackenzie Crook (Gladiolus Thrip), Richard Wilson (Father Simeon), Pauline McLynn (Karen Speedwell), Saskia Wickham (Jenny), Thomas Arnold (Jay Van Helsing), Mark Phoenix (Sandy), Tim Eagle (Whoppo) & Victoria Finney (Séance Woman)

DEMONS 1.5 – "Smitten"

Spoilers. "Smitten", written by Merlin scribe Howard Overman, clearly has a better understanding of what ingredients should go into telefantasy like Demons, but its good intentions and a smattering of decent ideas are let down by the usual problems: misfiring execution, limp chemistry between the leads, undercooked relationships, and unintentional laughs...

Here, we’re finally given a look at Luke's (Christian Cooke) life beyond his call-to-arms as Galvin's (Philip Glenister) apprentice, with the arrival of an attractive blonde girl called Alice (Laura Aikman) at the college canteen. Luke's smooth moves initially don't penetrate Alice's frosty veneer, but after rescuing her from a gang of bullying teenage boys (by demonstrating his kung fu to the obligatory pop song), it's not long before he's charmed his way into Alice's affections and they start to date.

Of course, Galvin and Mina (Zoë Tapper) come to suspect Alice isn't all she seems, with news that a half-life harbouring a vendetta against the Van Helsing family is in town hoping to kill Luke, and can take the form of a human woman. Is Alice actually a shape-changing, fire-breathing harpie creature? What do you think?

The good news is that, for once, each act built to an effective climax that just about managed to kept your interest through each advert break. It was also a good idea to show us more of Luke's social life -- even if the brief college scenes were lifeless, his only friend appears to be the very irritating Ruby (Holliday Grainger), and his mother has one again vanished. "Smitten" would have worked far better if Alice's character had been introduced earlier in the series, or if Ruby had perhaps been unmasked as a villainous half-life instead.

As a standalone story, there just wasn't the time to make us believe in this hurried Luke/Alice romance, so Luke's protestations over the idea his new girlfriend might be a winged creature just didn't click. I had vague hope for a relatively clever, if not unexpected twist (like Galvin being proven wrong about Alice's true identity) but that disappeared once Alice started swapping drinks spiked with poison to catch her out.

The finale set-piece was once again a painful anticlimax, particularly because it involved Luke facing off against a piece of blurry CGI, successfully "smiting" the monster rather easily again. It would have been better to keep things on a human level, as the intention to make us feel sorry about Luke killing his girlfriend just didn't materialize. Why couldn't Alice have transformed into a humanoid beast, with a few prosthetics; something that could actually act and speak to Luke at the end?

Overall, as a penultimate episode, this didn't set anything up for next week's finale, and it's very difficult to imagine ITV bothering to make another series. For every half-decent idea a writer manages to cough up (sometimes by accident), it's all undone by sloppy direction and stilted performances. There are occasional flashes of a better show struggling to get out, though: I liked the Harry Potter-style dwarf called Luggs (Michael Walter) that Galvin and Mina visited for information, and Galvin's atmosphere-bursting comment after an argument with Luke: "well, this is intense." But these are brief glints of moonlight on a dark ocean of mediocrity.


31 January 2009
ITV1, 7.45pm

Writer: Howard Overman
Director: Matthew Evans

Cast: Philip Glenister (Galvin), Christian Cooke (Luke), Zoë Tapper (Mina), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Laura Aikman (Alice), Sara Stewart (Prof. Lambert), Michael Walter (Luggs), Daniel Anthony (Ashley), Ed Coleman (Boris) & Alan Tripney (Neighbour)

DEMONS 1.4 – "Suckers"

Spoilers. Demons is still insanely easy to pick fault with and become irritated by, but "Suckers" was a modest improvement over the previous three episodes. A lot of this was down to one simple fact: Zoë Tapper's performance and character is a cut-above everyone else's, and this episode focused on her to a beneficial degree.

Here, a vampire called Quincey (Ciaran McMenamin) is on the prowl with his undead girlfriend Anika (Katrine de Candole), having been recently revived to the strains of AC/DC by a Johnny Rotten-like goon called Zippy (Peter G. Reed). Of course, Mina has a history with Quincey that Galvin (Philip Glenister) is being vague about to help sustain the plot, but our expectations about Mina's past are eventually proven true– she's half "half-life" (quarter-life?), owing to the fact she was bitten by Dracula over 150 years ago, but chooses to keep her vampiric nature in check by filtering her blood. Begging the question: would gung-ho Galvin allow other half-lives a similar chance to lead a normal, human life? Or would he just "smite" them with all the moral fibre of a bug exterminator?

The storyline is rather thin again, not helped by the fact Quincey is a terribly bland, pretty-boy villain who gets no credibly scary moments. A tendency to walk super-fast with a CGI blur and tongue his fangs is about his limit. Lucy Watkins' script doesn't even give him a devious scheme that needs thwarting; all Quincey does is pretend to be a doctor (injoke?) and extract blood from an elderly donor, through traditional intravenous means. Where are the fangs and the neck-biting? For all his talk of slaying countless humans over the decades, this episode paints him as all-talk, no-walk. He even goes bowling with his henchmen in one ridiculous scene; punctuated by an idiotic moment that explains why his sidekick's called Zippy (his head can be detached by neck-zipper and bowled down the alley for a strike, of course.)

Ruby (Holliday Grainger) is still an irritating hanger-on, with a perplexing hatred of Mina that exists solely to create tension and the threat of a cat-fight between "the girls". It makes her appear incredibly immature and rather insecure, actually; but at least that's something of a personality to build on. Her co-stars are still very anaemic in that respect-- Galvin is nothing but a skewed accent and dour expressions, while our hero Luke (Christian Cooke) resembles a gun-toting mannequin.

This episode is rescued from total tedium by a third act twist that worked well (probably because Demons is so inept you're not expecting anything creative to happen.) It turns out that Quincey is actually Mina's son, whom she turned into a vampire using some of her blood when he was terminally ill in hospital during WWII. The reveal worked well in making us reassess their relationship, and brief moment towards the end (with Mina drinking her own unfiltered blood to regain her vampire powers so she can rescue Ruby and Galvin from Quincey), was also a rare action sequence that worked. Interesting to note that when Mina embraces her half-life nature she regains her sight, too. The burden of blindness lends a nice "curse" aspect to her human existence.

Overall, I'm going to be fair and admit that "Suckers" held my attention, and the last fifteen minutes were particularly solid. It's still not great, and often quite embarrassing and silly (only vampires can kill vampires, so humans have to first restore them to life by shooting them with their own DNA?!), but "Suckers" was a relatively decent episode because Mina's a moderately engaging character, and the episode wasn't without some merit. It's just a shame Quincey was so insipid and unthreatening as this week's villain (something of a recurring problem for the show), and the supposed leads of Galvin and Luke are so tiresome to watch.


24 January 2009
ITV1, 7.45pm

Writer: Lucy Watkins
Director: Tom Harper

Cast: Philip Glenister (Galvin), Zoë Tapper (Mina), Christian Cooke (Luke), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Ciaran McMenamin (Quincey), Katrine de Candole (Anika), Peter G. Reed (Zippy), Eileen Essell (Ethel) & Liz Cass (Gail)

DEMONS 1.3 – "Saving Grace"

Spoilers. "What a crock of smite", as Philip Glenister's trans-American might say. Demons appears to have settled on its identity, so we'll just have to put up with the frankly embarrassing dialogue and head-slapping clichés. The characters are still soulless bores (the "half-lives" have considerably more personality, so I'm on their side), and it still hasn't been explained why Luke (Christian Cooke) has blindly accepted his destiny as the last Van Helsing. Wouldn't it be more dramatic if he was less acquiescent about his calling? Or, even if he prefers killing monsters over doing school work, can we get a sense that he's an academic underachiever who's discovered something he's good at?

In this week's outing, a rat-faced villain called Mr. Tibbs is on the scene; the rodent-man responsible for killing Galvin's (Glenister) wife Maggie years ago. Kevin McNally plays Mr. Tibbs (the second Pirates Of The Caribbean alumni to appear on Demons after Mackenzie Crook in episode 1), and has great fun with his Terry Thomas-meets-King Rat persona. Despite his character's non-threatening moniker and a disappointing lack of intelligence (we'll come to that later), McNally does well to make his character enjoyably slimy and creepy.

You'd think the storyline would give us fresh insight into Galvin, but the script squanders that opportunity. We've never met Galvin's wife, and have no sense of their relationship before her death, so it's difficult to really care about Galvin's grief. Glenister wrings what he can from a speech about his wife's murder while trapped in a slowly flooding sewer with Luke, but it's not enough to earn much sympathy. Would a few flashbacks have hurt? Or how about tying Mr. Tibbs' current actions into what happened years ago? We're told Mr. Tibbs is renowned for performing genetic experiments on humans, but that's strangely not a factor in this episode.

Instead, this episode is more focused on Ruby (Holliday Grainger) and her willingness to get embroiled in Luke's dangerous new life. After Mr. Tibbs lures Galvin and Luke into a trap (the aforementioned sewer), he also gains access to "The Stacks" via a human accomplice called Grace – who poses as a traumatized women Galvin rescues from Mr. Tibbs' clutches. Once she's safely in The Stacks, Grace brains Mina (Zoë Tapper) and leaves her unconscious on the floor, before being killed for her trouble by Tibbs. But why doesn't Tibbs shoot Mina? Or burn The Stacks down? Instead, he leaves a bomb behind to destroy the place. And, while that seems like a good idea, why did he ensure the bomb has a 50-minute countdown? That's bad-guy cliché #2, just behind reciting a monologue that explains your evil masterplan.

Inevitably, Ruby saves the day when she discovers the bomb – although, despite the fact she has 14-minutes to grab it and throw it into the Thames, she instead decides to become a bomb disposal expert by speed-reading a book about incendiary devices. Then, having snipped the appropriate wire (yes, that old chestnut) she takes the concussed Mina to the sewer to save Luke and Galvin from drowning. Here, the script once again leans heavily on the magical ability of Mina to discern information from touching things (in this case, sewerage control panels.)

On the bright side, every episode is a slight improvement on the one before – but maybe we're just acclimatizing and have our expectations low enough to be mildly surprised we didn't fall asleep? It's still a terrible waste of a good cast (particularly Zoë Tapper, who's good but wasted), and the tone is very uneven. Is it a children's television series (a la Sarah Jane Adventures) as evidence by the upbeat theme tune and Harry Potter-esque villains? Is it something a bit grittier (Galvin obliterates a sympathetic "mouseman" with his pulse gun, Mr. Tibbs shoots a brainwashed woman at point-blank range)? The producers are clearly not sure, either; in one scene, the script clearly has Galvin say "shit" when he's trapped in a sewer chamber, but the swear word is dubbed over as "shoot".

Overall, "Saving Grace" was another lightweight outing for a series failing to make any of its characters worth caring about. I have minor interest in Mina's back-story (which must, surely, be quite interesting), but its sub-Buffy action sequences (the badly-choreographed attack of the "Noisy Boys"), bland characterisations, and humdrum storylines, are very difficult to sit through.


17 January 2009
ITV1, 7.45pm

Writer: Lucy Watkins
Director: Matthew Evans

Cast: Philip Glenister (Galvin), Zoë Tapper (Mina), Christian Cooke (Luke), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Kevin McNally (Mr. Tibbs), Laura Pyper (Grace), Saskia Wickham (Jenny) & Calvin Dean (Mouseman)

TV Week 30: Demons, Plus One & QI

My thirtieth TV Week is now available online at Newslite.tv; capsule reviews for ITV1's fantasy-actioner Demons, Channel 4's comedy calamity Plus One, and "Series F" of QI on BBC1.

DEMONS 1.2 – "The Whole Enchilada"

A definite tween-Torchwood vibe emerges during "The Whole Enchilada", an admittedly superior follow-up to the awful start we suffered last week. Here, Galvin (Philip Glenister), Luke (Christian Cooke) and Mina (Zoë Tapper) try to find a missing girl called Ally Dunelm (Ashes To Ashes' Grace Vance), who has been abducted by "an angel" while visiting a graveyard, according to her sister Madge (Kizzy Mee)...

Demons still suffers from the inevitable comparisons to other, better shows. This episode had the tone of a P.J Hammond episode of Torchwood, with the bedrock of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and the guest appearance of Merlin's Richard Wilson (essentially reprising his role as Gaius, to play another scholar of the supernatural in a silly wig, Father Simeon.) Demons itself has no unique identifier just yet, beyond Philip Glenister doing an American accent as broad as the Mississippi.

But, for all that, "The Whole Enchilada" showed some promise, however dim. Its closest relation is undoubtedly Buffy, and I'd argue that England is a far better locale for such a television show, owing to its richer history and gothic architecture. There are a few sequences here (in the recurring "Stacks" library, Simeon's abode, and an empty church) that deliver an enjoyable sense of cobwebbed, spooky horror. Far more so than Buffy's hot summer nights and vibrant high school setting; although I understand the incongruous nature of Buffy's location was intentional, and part of the joke.

Sadly, the script is far less provocative and insightful than even the weakest instalment of Buffy – with the storyline and characters all reminiscent of other things, retold in a diluted Saturday tea-time way. And when the episode accidentally stumbles onto something rather cool and comparatively hardcore -- like the appearance of the 2000-year-old, lizardy demon Gilgamel in a church-set finale -- our sword-wielding hero Luke dispatches (or "smites") the fiend after a particularly boring three seconds of lame choreography. We waited patiently for nearly an hour... for that?

In-between the supernatural fluff, we also have to pretend we care about Luke's difficult in balancing his role as a Van Helsing with normal life. Here, it's a driving test with a clichéd driving instructor that gets in the way of demon slaying. And, because there are only six episodes in this series, the show is already making it obvious what the big, unsurprising reveal will be for Luke in the finale: yes, godfather Galvin is most likely responsible, in some way, for Luke's father's death -- or whatever misfortune really befell him. That appears to be the root cause of Father Simeon's "colonial hatred" of Galvin, anyway.

The characters have yet to take root, too. Hopes for a "Gene Hunter: Monster Slayer"-style show are disappearing fast with Glenister's sour personality, rosy-cheeked Ruby was marginalized (perhaps for the best), and as for Mina and Luke? Well, it's a case of the blind leading the bland, really. Incidentally, who puts a blind pianist in charge of an underground library? Is it all in Braille?

And it's not really been explained how Galvin and his gang actually get involved in cases, either. It's a problem encountered by other genre shows – that's why Doctor Who has his "psychic paper" to allow him to access to places, and Torchwood are supposedly a branch of clandestine investigators. Demons' gang don't appear to have any legitimacy and work in the shadows; so it's not explained why the Dunelms allow these oddballs to help find their daughter. Where were the police?

Overall, I've yet to be impressed by Demons, although part of me believes it could find some form once it settles on a tone that works, and strengthens the characters. At the moment, everything smells like it's been created by committee: Buffy-style gang + Torchwood-style American leader + Doctor Who-style knockabout tone + Merlin-style FX = surefire smash-hit. The worrying thing is, they might be right. But for me, my mind shuts down as soon as the incongruously upbeat theme tune arrives to drain whatever tension had been created in the teaser. It's the equivalent of playing "The Monster Mash" during David Cronenberg's The Fly.


10 January 2009
ITV1, 7.45pm

Writer: Peter Tabern
Director: Tom Harper

Cast: Philip Glenister (Rupert Galvin), Richard Wilson (Father Simeon), Christian Cooke (Luke Rutherford), Zoë Tapper (Mina Harker), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Saskia Wickham (Jenny Rutherford), Kizzy Mee (Madge Dunelm), Grace Vance (Ally Dunelm), Sam Loggin (Kirsty Dunelm), Ben Walker (Jamie), Johann Myers (Terry), Aaron McCusker (Mark), Tyler Anthony (Abi), Rick English (Gilgamel), Vincent Wang (Kumo San), Michael Webber (Driving Test Examiner) & Marie Stokes (Angel Nicola)

DEMONS 1.1 – "The Bite"

They say the first bite is the sweetest, but fantasy drama Demons left a very bitter taste in the mouth. ITV1's latest attempt to duplicate the success of Doctor Who, this was essentially Harry Potter-meets-Buffy from the creative force behind Hex, but with twice the suck...

Demons is a coming-of-age tale about a teenage boy called Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke), who meets his American godfather Rupert Galvin (Philip Glenister) and learns he's the descendent of famed vampire-hunter Abraham Van Helsing, and last in line since the death of his father when he was a baby. This all explains why he has the reactions of a flea, and starts seeing beasties the moment Rupert reveals his lineage – including banana-faced villain Redlips (Martin Hancock) and his razor-toothed pet gremlin.

As Rupert convinces Luke of his destiny as a smiter of so-called "half-life" entities (the word "demons" is never mentioned), by showing him the Van Helsing family's secret library (known as "The Stacks"), Luke has to contend with the sinister Gladiolus Thrip (Mackenzie Crook); a beak-nosed teddyboy with bouffant blonde hair and a vendetta against the Van Helsing family.

Thrown into the mix are Luke's plucky best-friend Ruby (Holliday Grainger) and Mina Harker (Zoë Tapper), a blind concert pianist blessed with clairtangency (she receives psychic visions by touching people and objects.) It all sounds like spirited fun, but there's no spark of invention to the old-hat premise, and a sense of laziness permeates the whole enterprise. Its Potter-like discovery of birthright destiny (similarly employed in Merlin, produced by the same team), and the presence of a Buffy-style gang are elements that should at least be entertaining, but "The Bite" limped through its treacle-like storyline and contained truly laughable, stilted dialogue ("denial is not an option.")

There was barely a single moment that worked, despite the best efforts of Cooke and Glenister; the latter given an incongruous American accent (to help sell the show in the US, a la John Barrowman in Torchwood?), while the former displays his naked chest moments after being introduced (to snag the teenage girl demographic?) The dual-cuteness of Grainger and Tapper is welcome, but neither actress had a memorable character to play; with Ruby quickly reduced to damsel-in-distress, and blind Mina's psychic abilities are a mere gimmick to short-cut proper, investigative storylines.

Overall, this was a seriously underwhelming and embarrassing beginning. Under-10's may find entertainment in the monstrous make-up (hoodie Hyena-boys and the Mighty Boosh-style Redlips henchman) and the half-decent CGI, but there wasn't much of a compelling story or interesting characters. To be optimistic, producers Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy's tweenage Merlin also started unremarkably before finding mid-season form, so Demons might also find its feet in the futyre. On paper, the cast are a talented mix of relative newcomers, led by an experienced veteran, so I have a kernel of hope they'll develop some chemistry, too. But, as far as opening episodes go, "The Bite" failed to sink any teeth... and could be ITV's first turkey of the new year.


3 January 2009
ITV1, 7.20pm

Writer: Peter Tabern
Director: Tom Harper

Cast: Christian Cooke (Luke Rutherford), Philip Glenister (Galvin), Mackenzie Crook (Gladiolus Thrip), Zoë Tapper (Mina Harker), Holliday Grainger (Ruby), Martin Hancock (Redlip), Saskia Wickham (Jenny Rutherford), Thomas Arnold (Jay Van Helsing), Cloudia Swann (Greta), Meryl Fernandes (Amber Selway) & Chris Jarman (Security Guard)

Coming Soon: Demons, ITV1

ITV1 have a new supernatural series on the way, called Demons. It stars Life On Mars' Philip Glenister as Rupert Galvin, the American godfather of British teen Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke), who is actually the descendent of world-famous vampire hunter Van Helsing...

Luke and Rupert team up to defeat the forces of darkness (known as "half-lives"), helped by blind concert pianist Mina Harker (Survivors' Zoe Tapper) and Luke's feisty friend Ruby (Holly Grainger). Richard Wilson essentially reprises his Merlin role as zombie priest Father Simeon, an authority on the supernatural.

The series will guest-star Mackenzie Crook (as vampire Gladiolas Thrip), and includes creatures such as the "Noisy Boys" (hooded hyena-men who roam the streets), "Redlip" (a monkey-creature), "Mr Tibbs" (a man-rat who experiments on humans underground), and "Gilgamel (a demon who feasts on the souls of children.)

First impressions? It all sounds fun, although it's clearly a fairly unremarkable hybrid of Dracula and Buffy. Not sure why the title changed from The Last Van Helsing to the bland catch-all Demons, though. The actors are also an interesting mix: I can't wait to hear Glenister's American accent (what's the betting his character will just be Gene Hunt with stakes?), while rising stars Cooke, Tapper and Grainger are all attractive and familiar faces from recent fantasy series. Cooke played Ross in Doctor Who's "The Sontaran Stratagem" two-parter, while Grainger recently turned up as Sophia in Merlin's "The Gates Of Avalon".

The six-part series will air on ITV1 in the New Year.