The next big geeky cult

The latest round of television commissioners seem to be geeks or at least after the geek pound anyway. Just look at the type of shows getting commissioned – they all seem to have ‘capturing the fanboy market’ in mind.

The latest one of those was actually commissioned in response to the massive demand from the ‘fanboy’ cult following the pilot show (February 2008) managed to develop.

The pilot for Being Human was broadcast on BBC Three as part of their pilot drama series – basically it involved a range of one-off dramas being shown prime time on BBC Three in the hope that at least one would bit with the audience.

And a drama following the day to day lives of a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf was the one that bit hardest. To be honest I’m not surprised – the pilot left things open for what could be a great cult series.

And the BBC have just launched the first trailer for the new series (still ‘coming soon’ but if the trailer is out ‘soon’ could be anytime within the next two weeks.

There are also three back story videos published on the Being Human BBC Blog. The one for George (the werewolf) looks back at how he became a werewolf shot from the perspect of an American tourists video camera.

Then there is Mitchell – something of an Angel like nice vampire that doesn’t like sucking on the blood of the innocent. The video is shot piece looking at a moment where he lets a ‘victim’ walk away – I guess it is meant to be something of a turning point.

And finally the ghost – in the form of Annie. This is another video camera perspective – this time shot by the male half of a couple that moved into ‘Annies House’ – the one Mitchel and George move into in the pilot (and I’m assuming the series proper).

It basically starts with them all happy about moving in (with hints at ghostlyness) and then gradually moves more towards them being completely freaked out and leaving.

There are a couple of cast changes since the pilot with Annie now being played byy Lenora Crichlow, rather than Andrea Riseborough and Mitchell will now be played by Aidan Turner instead of Guy Flanagan.

Of the three principle characters the role of George is the only one to remain the same as the pilot with Russell Tovey staying in place.

Russell may bring in a couple of Doctor Who fans (although I imagine a number of them will instantly warm to this being in a similar genre) after playing Midshipman Alonso Frame in Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned back in 2007.

He was also on many a shortlist to take the role of The Doctor himself until it was announced that Matt Smith had got the part.

Either way – this (and Oz and James Drink to Britain) is one of my must watch shows of 2009 well the first few months of it at least.