I was going to avoid the most obvious spoiler about John Donnelly’s daftly entertaining play but it’s been described elsewhere as a “vampire comedy” and the programme is full of references to undead bloodsuckers. So yes, this is fairly silly, comic-gothic drama about contemporary London vampires but it’s also about psychological and societal breakdown. And it features a striking central performance from Sophie Melville as a young, overwhelmed mother of two.
We first see Melville’s waifish, high-strung Mia threatened by a sodcasting, suited thug on the tube even though she’s carrying her baby daughter Isla. She’s sleep-deprived because her upstairs neighbours play drum ‘n’ bass all night and her shlubby techie husband Joe (Bryan Dick) works odd hours intercepting communications for the police, possibly connected to mutilated and decapitated bodies found in the Thames.
