More on the Casting
I was on night shift last night and reading my copy of SFX when I got very upset at reading about the casting for the upcoming series.
"When Being Human kicks off it's first full six-part series on BBC3 early next year there'll be some big changes from February's pilot. In fact, it's pretty much a reboot... but I don't want to ring alarm bells among the fanbase," producer Matthew Bouch tells Red Alert.
Some of the series' changes have been made with the benifit of having been able to read what the 'fans' liked and disliked about the pilot. Others have been made at the behest of BBC3, who Bouch reckons, "Weren't entirely sure that it matched their aspirations fo r BBC3. I think it was only after it went out and people responded in the way that they did that they felt reassured that it was connecting with the right kind of audience."
The biggest change is that vampire Mitchell and Ghost Annie have been recast (although at time of press it hasn't been revealed by whom), though Russell T Davies choice for a future Doctor Who, Russell Tovey, is back as werewolf George. "with the other two," says Bouch, "It's a mix of things. We felt that both performances were fantastic, but there were elements that we wanted to adjust, and we wanted to reflect that in the casting. We've cast slightly younger, which was a response to some extent, to BBC3 who felt that perhaps our characters wee a bit too old. Also, we wanted to make it slightly snappier, and slightly funnier, and that required a few adjustments."
The series will start afresh with a new first episode - the pilot will not be retransmitted. Bouch says, "Think of like Star Trek's The Cage. It'll exist in it's own bubble, a blueprint for the show but not part of the continuity.
The treatment od the show's bloodsuckers will also be subtly different, "What in particular we thoguhts didn't quite work in the pilot was our depiction of vampires. We thought it was slightly too gothic, slightly Blade if you like, and it didn't quite occupy the same universe as George and Annie. So we've made the vampires more ordinary. We've rooted them more in the texture of the real world."
Which also means that Adrian Lester won't be back as Herrick, "We've cast someone who is slightly more down to Earth. Our new Herrick has a proper job and feels very much rooted in the real world. And I think that's going to be very effective and more scary. The vampire plot is still there. It's perhaps rewound a couple of stages, so that it's a bit more embryonic than it was in the pilot."
So to summarise, even though they don't want to annoy the fans, who withouth there would never have been a commision for a full series, they're doing it anyway by going against all our wishes and recasting Annie and Mitchell and basically changing the entire feel of the show. The only things staying the same will be George and the name of the show. Anyone else pissed off cause I know I am.
"When Being Human kicks off it's first full six-part series on BBC3 early next year there'll be some big changes from February's pilot. In fact, it's pretty much a reboot... but I don't want to ring alarm bells among the fanbase," producer Matthew Bouch tells Red Alert.
Some of the series' changes have been made with the benifit of having been able to read what the 'fans' liked and disliked about the pilot. Others have been made at the behest of BBC3, who Bouch reckons, "Weren't entirely sure that it matched their aspirations fo r BBC3. I think it was only after it went out and people responded in the way that they did that they felt reassured that it was connecting with the right kind of audience."
The biggest change is that vampire Mitchell and Ghost Annie have been recast (although at time of press it hasn't been revealed by whom), though Russell T Davies choice for a future Doctor Who, Russell Tovey, is back as werewolf George. "with the other two," says Bouch, "It's a mix of things. We felt that both performances were fantastic, but there were elements that we wanted to adjust, and we wanted to reflect that in the casting. We've cast slightly younger, which was a response to some extent, to BBC3 who felt that perhaps our characters wee a bit too old. Also, we wanted to make it slightly snappier, and slightly funnier, and that required a few adjustments."
The series will start afresh with a new first episode - the pilot will not be retransmitted. Bouch says, "Think of like Star Trek's The Cage. It'll exist in it's own bubble, a blueprint for the show but not part of the continuity.
The treatment od the show's bloodsuckers will also be subtly different, "What in particular we thoguhts didn't quite work in the pilot was our depiction of vampires. We thought it was slightly too gothic, slightly Blade if you like, and it didn't quite occupy the same universe as George and Annie. So we've made the vampires more ordinary. We've rooted them more in the texture of the real world."
Which also means that Adrian Lester won't be back as Herrick, "We've cast someone who is slightly more down to Earth. Our new Herrick has a proper job and feels very much rooted in the real world. And I think that's going to be very effective and more scary. The vampire plot is still there. It's perhaps rewound a couple of stages, so that it's a bit more embryonic than it was in the pilot."
So to summarise, even though they don't want to annoy the fans, who withouth there would never have been a commision for a full series, they're doing it anyway by going against all our wishes and recasting Annie and Mitchell and basically changing the entire feel of the show. The only things staying the same will be George and the name of the show. Anyone else pissed off cause I know I am.