Being Human On BBC3 / BBC America

[Captain_BluTac]

Being Human

Being Human is a British television drama/horror/comedy series starring Lenora Crichlow, Russell Tovey and Aidan Turner as three apparent twenty-something characters sharing a house in Bristol, trying to live a normal social life, despite being a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_Human_(TV_series)

 

[Lord Valumart]

i think this has to be the best thing bbc three has done since it started

i loved the pilot and i'm sure the full series will not disapoint

 

[Prison Mike]

watching the show on youtube right now and enjoying it very much.

 

[WallCrawl]

Werewolf? comedy drama? BBC?

I'm so very glad you made me aware of the presence of this show.

 

[hammy]

Ditto that.

 

[WallCrawl]

Just watched the pilot. I want more. I was little worried at the beginning how they would handle the comedy and the horror aspect of the characters. by the 42 min mark, I as loving it.

Wikipedia says that the original actors haven't been re-signed due to scheduling conflicts. I hope they do, George's screams when he's changing is actually terrifying and sound like he's in pain.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

We don't know about the original cast yet, the BBC has said they hope to get them back, but haven't confirmed either way.

 

[WallCrawl]

We don't know about the original cast yet, the BBC has said they hope to get them back, but haven't confirmed either way.

That's what I meant. I should've put a "yet" right after "re-signed."

Watching the first episode of Jekyll now.

 

[porchmonkey408]

RUDGE!

"History is just one f***ing thing after another."

 

[Captain_BluTac]

New 'Being Human' cast revealed!

After a successful pilot episode earlier this year, Being Human is returning for a full, six-episode series on BBC Three.

The drama - being filmed now in Bristol - revolves around a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost sharing a house together.

The pilot was, to all intents and purposes, a huge success - notching up critical acclaim, almost half a million viewers and an internet petition calling for a full series. The wish was granted.

Now, for the series proper, producers have made a number of changes to the format - including drafting in a new cast.

The only survivor from the pilot is Russell Tovey, who plays George, the nerdy hospital porter battling with his double identity as a predatory werewolf.

Aidan Turner (RTÉ's The Clinic) takes over from Guy Flanagan as Mitchell, the laid-back vampire who is struggling to go 'cold turkey' from the whole blood-sucking thing.

Replacing Andrea Riseborough in the role of Annie is Lenora Crichlow, best known for playing Sugar in C4 lesbian drama Sugar Rush. Annie is the talkative but unconfident ghost, who is trapped in the house that George and Mitchell come to inhabit.

"Having a new cast is mainly to do with the slight tonal shift in the show," producer Matt Bouch tells me. "We wanted to go slightly younger, mainly because [the pilot] skewed perhaps slightly too old for BBC Three's target audience."

Also reworked is the vampires-taking-over-the-world subplot led by a character named Herrick (Adrian Lester). Now Herrick is a more down-to-earth chappy, played by Jason Watkins (Funland), who attempts to turn Mitchell back to the dark side.

As for how the pilot fits into the master plan, try to forget it. "The pilot has been put on the shelf and won't be retransmitted. This is essentially a new show," Bouch adds. "We are re-introducing all of the characters and assuming that the audience have no knowledge at all of the pilot."

Being Human will air early next year on BBC Three.

Yay for Russell Tovey and the lack of Guy Flanagan and for Andrea Riseborough and the pilot being non-canon .

 

[Lord Valumart]

ugh...fail bbc...fail

 

[Captain_BluTac]

That was my first thought too, but on the casting front I do like Lenora Crichlow and I always hated GF anyways.

 

[Lord Valumart]

i liked flanagan...i thought he was awesome in this...and i liked the lass that played the ghost...

and damnit bbc why do you need one of the worst female actors i've ever seen tobein something that could have been so awesome? on that point why drop the whole take over plot?

FAIL!

 

[Captain_BluTac]

Just re-watched the pilot and I am starting to wonder if LC will be "homely" enough to play Annie.

 

[TheVileOne]

All this and they still won't say a damn thing about Wolverine and The X-men.

 

[Captain_BluTac]

What you think?

 

[Lord Valumart]

oh flanagan...how i miss you

 

[Captain_BluTac]

You and I both know Riseborough is the bigger loss.

 

[Lord Valumart]

yes...yes that is true

 

[Captain_BluTac]

But Hopefully Lenora Crichlow can act, she was rubbish on Doctor Who, but pretty god damn awesome on Sugar Rush, so I still have a glimmer of hope.

 

[TheVileOne]

I thought the Ghost was pretty hot, sad to see her go. Who are these new people re-cast as the characters?

I watched the pilot, and it's not very funny. It's much more a drama than a comedy.

I'm confused though, how can people see the ghost and how can she touch things? How did she die?

 

[Captain_BluTac]

They may have dropped it now, but it was gonna be one of the shows mysteries (as well as how Annie died).

 

[Captain_BluTac]

2009 TV Preview: 'Being Human' the series

Next up in our preview of the best of 2009's top telly is Being Human, returning for a full series after its successful pilot earlier this year.

As previously revealed here on Tube Talk, there have been two major casting changes from the pilot - and you can see the new trio all together for the first time above.

Producer Matt Bouch explains what else we can expect from Being Human's series proper.

Did you expect the pilot to get such a positive reaction?
"It was a surprise, to be honest, because I didn't expect it to get those kind of online petitions. Obviously it was a fantastic thing that everybody felt so enthusiastic about it. I think we'd felt we had made a great show but you never quite know what the response was going to be."

Going to series now, what would you say are the main changes from the pilot?
"Obviously there's the cast changes which is mainly to do with the slight tonal shift we wanted to make. It's a natural part of the developmental process from a pilot to a full series that changes are made, and this involved developing the characters over a six episode run. Particularly we wanted to be slightly less gothic and slightly more rooted. In the pilot I felt there were one or two scenes, like the Herrick storyline, which felt like they were from a slightly different show. We wanted to pull back on that and root it in reality a bit more. Part and parcel of that was to make it a bit funnier as well, to sharpen up the comedy. Basically it's a case of trying to improve what's already there."

Where does the pilot fit into the story going forwards then?
"The pilot has been put on the shelf and won't be transmitted. It might turn up as a DVD extra at some point but it is essentially a new show. We're reintroducing all of the characters and we're assuming that the audience has no knowledge at all of the pilot. So for the people who watched the pilot and liked it, they will see the characters they know and love return, and the story is sufficiently different that I hope that they won't be bored, but it's very much presented for an audience who haven't seen the pilot. The pilot was a useful exercise that we've learnt a lot from, but essentially we've now put that to one side and we've remade the show. It's kind of a reboot, if you like."

Aidan Turner has been cast as the new Mitchell - what does he bring to the role?
"With Aidan we all felt as soon as he walked into the room at the auditions that he was going to be a star. He looks great, has an incredible presence and an amazing charisma. The way we've shifted the character from the pilot is to give him a little bit more comic material and make him less of an observer. In the pilot we made him successfully feel like a vampire who was aging and had seen a lot, but he didn't feel like he was part of that trio - and we wanted to get a sense of three friends who live together and get on. Aidan brings that sense of being an equal side of the triangle."

And what's the thinking behind bringing in Lenora Crichlow as the new Annie?
"Well, we've changed that character slightly less than Mitchell, but there is a slightly warmer, more bubbly feel to the character. The chemistry between the three main actors is fantastic."

What's the format across the six episodes? Are they self-contained or are there ongoing storylines throughout?
"There's quite a lot of serial element, yeah. Particularly, there's Herrick and the vampires and what their plans for the world are. That's the evil plan ticking away, which always gives us a sense of tension. There are also serial storylines that are more emotional, such as George and his attempts to have a relationship; Mitchell and Lauren, a girl he turned into a vampire prior to episode one but then comes back to menace him during the course of episode one. With Annie it's very much about what she needs to do to pass over."

A lot of the big US shows in this genre are renowned for having "five-year plans" and longer term storyline strategies. How far have you planned into the future?
"I don't think we've got five year plans, we're not that organised! We've obviously talked about how the characters might progress into series two and in some instances beyond that, but those plans aren't set in stone. In the typical British cottage industry fashion, they're conversations we've had and we have a sense of where we want to take these characters. At the very least it's clear in episode six that the story takes a very dramatic twist into series two."

...

 

[The Question]

I really hope they keep the Vampire's evil plot storyline. Maybe it just comes from being a Buffy fan, but I'm a sucker for long running plots about some supernatural evil trying to subvert human society.

 

[Lord Valumart]

bah...damn this and it's poor poor recasting...