The question facing vampires Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) as season two of Interview with the Vampire launches on the BBC is: how can you stay relevant if you live forever? Fail to adapt to the times and you will end up throwing yourself into the fire, like the ancient Romanian vampire that Claudia meets in episode one – the tantalising promise of a new life in the new world too much to bear.
This is not a problem for series creator Rolin Jones. His adaptation of Anne Rice’s bestselling 1976 novel, largely greeted with enthusiasm by fans, is successful precisely because it thoroughly overhauls Rice’s meditation on immortality to fit our own times.
Season one garnered plaudits for its complex treatment of queer sexuality, coercive relationships and race. These themes are all still very much present in season two. It finds Louis and Claudia enjoying the lack of segregation and permissive sexual mores of postwar Paris, even as they deal with the aftermath of their relationship with their vampire “sire”, Lestat (Sam Reid).
