Young Dracula

Young Dracula is a British children's horror drama comedy television series which aired on CBBC, loosely based on Young Dracula, a 2002 children's book by Michael Lawrence.[1] The final episode aired on 31 March 2014.

For the American short film, see Young Dracula (film).

Young Dracula
Young Dracula Series 1–2 Title Card
Genre	Teen drama Supernatural drama Horror Sitcom (series 1–2)
Created by	Danny Robins Dan Tetsell
Starring	Keith-Lee Castle Gerran Howell Clare Thomas Simon Ludders Andy Bradshaw
Composer(s)	John Rea (series 1) Nick Lloyd (series 2–3) Simon Rogers (Series 4) Michael J McEvoy (series 5)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	5
No. of episodes	66 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Josephine Ward
Producer(s)	Mia Jupp (series 1–2) Lis Steele (series 3–4) Melanie Halsall (Series 3) Candida Julian–Jones (series 5)
Production location(s)	Glamorgan (series 1–2) Liverpool (series 3–5)
Editor(s)	Christian Blood Emyr Jenkins Robert Douglas-Reeves Nick Holes Jane Murrell Pedr James Angharad Owen Bleddyn Rhys
Camera setup	Videotape (filmized) (series 1–2) RED (series 3–5) Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	BBC Cymru Wales
Distributor	Fireworks Entertainment (2006–2011) Content Media Corporation PLC (2011–2014)
Release
Original network	CBBC Channel
Picture format	SDTV (576i) (series 1–2) HDTV (1080i) (series 3–5)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	Original Series: 21 September 2006 (2006-09-21) – 31 March 2014 (2014-03-31)

The first two series follow the Dracula family, a family of vampires: Vladimir (Vlad), his father Count Dracula, and sister Ingrid. Having lived in Transylvania, they move to Stokely, a small town in Wales after various incidents involving angry peasant mobs. It was filmed in various locations around Wales, including Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Caerphilly Castle, Tretower Court and parts of Llantrisant. Directed by Joss Agnew, the first series was broadcast in 2006 and the second series, which started in late 2007, concluded in early 2008.

The third series, commissioned three years after the second, sees Vlad and the Count flee both vampires and slayers, while the Count is determined that Vlad should fulfil his destiny to become "the Chosen One". This series was filmed in Liverpool during 2011, in various locations including the disused Margaret Bevan School, Croxteth Hall and Stanley Docks.[2][3][4] It began airing on 31 October 2011. The fourth series follows on from season three's predicament and had a new director, airing on 29 October 2012. Young Dracula was renewed for a fifth and final series in 2013, with filming beginning in April.[5] The hour long finale, "The Darkest Hour", aired 31 March 2014.

Young Dracula was nominated for Best Children's Drama in the 2008 BAFTA Awards and has been nominated for several other awards. An additional series, the Young Dracula Files, began broadcasting on 24 October 2012, in which the main characters tell their stories of the past. It was primarily hosted by the character Bertrand Du Fortunesa, played by Cesare Taurasi.

Characters

Main article: List of Young Dracula characters

Character	Portrayed by	Series
		1	2	3	4	5
Vladimir Dracula	Gerran Howell	Main
Count Dracula	Keith Lee Castle	Main
Ingrid Dracula	Clare Thomas	Main
Renfield	Simon Ludders	Main
Zoltan	Andy Bradshaw	Main
Robin Branagh	Craig Roberts	Main
Chloe Branagh	Lucy Borja-Edwards	Main
Eric Van Helsing	Terence Maynard	Main
Jonathan Van Helsing	Terry Haywood	Main
Mina Van Helsing	Jo-Anne Knowles		Main
Wolfie Westernra	Lorenzo Rodriguez			Main
Alex McCauley	Letty Butler			Main
Bertrand du Fortunesa	Cesare Taurasi			Main
Erin Noble	Sydney Rae White			Main
Malik Vaccaria	Richard Southgate				Main
Sally Giles	Laura Howard					Main
George Giles	Bella Band					Main
Asan Ramanga	Quinton Nyirenda					Main
Talitha	Eleanor Gecks					Main
Piers	Mark Rowley					Main

Episodes

Main article: List of Young Dracula episodes

Series		Episodes	Originally aired
			Series premiere	Series finale
	1	14	21 September 2006 (21 September 2006)	21 December 2006 (21 December 2006)
	2	13	2 November 2007 (2 November 2007)	8 February 2008 (8 February 2008)
	3	13	31 October 2011 (31 October 2011)	12 December 2011 (12 December 2011)
	4	13	29 October 2012 (29 October 2012)	18 December 2012 (18 December 2012)
	5	13	13 January 2014	31 March 2014

Ratings

Series	Episode No.	Airdate	Total Viewers	CBBC Weekly Ranking
1
	1	21 September 2006	N/A	N/A
	2	28 September 2006	N/A	N/A
	3	5 October 2006	N/A	N/A
	4	12 October 2006	N/A	N/A
	5	19 October 2006	N/A	N/A
	6	26 October 2006	N/A	N/A
	7	2 November 2006	N/A	N/A
	8	9 November 2006	N/A	N/A
	9	16 November 2006	N/A	N/A
	10	23 November 2006	N/A	N/A
	11	30 November 2006	N/A	N/A
	12	7 December 2006	N/A	N/A
	13	14 December 2006	195,000	2
	14	21 December 2006	194,000	6
2
	1	2 November 2007	313,000	2
	2	9 November 2007	210,000	N/A
	3	16 November 2007	269,000	6
	4	23 November 2007	312,000	5
	5	30 November 2007	270,000	6
	6	7 December 2007	274,000	3
	7	14 December 2007	335,000	2
	8	21 December 2007	242,000	9
	9	11 January 2008	307,000	4
	10	18 January 2008	270,000	4
	11	25 January 2008	201,000	N/A
	12	1 February 2008	137,000	N/A
	13	8 February 2008	291,000	8
3
	1	31 October 2011	454,000	2
	2	1 November 2011	539,000	1
	3	7 November 2011	524,000	1
	4	8 November 2011	437,000	3
	5	14 November 2011	562,000	1
	6	15 November 2011	508,000	2
	7	21 November 2011	557,000	2
	8	22 November 2011	573,000	1
	9	28 November 2011	587,000	1
	10	29 November 2011	520,000	4
	11	5 December 2011	497,000	1
	12	6 December 2011	389,000	5
	13	12 December 2011	457,000	4
4
	1	29 October 2012	407,000	8
	2	5 November 2012	306,000	10
	3	12 November 2012	332,000	9
	4	19 November 2012	334,000	N/A
	5	26 November 2012	272,000	N/A
	6	27 November 2012	253,000	N/A
	7	3 December 2012	326,000	N/A
	8	4 December 2012	341,000	N/A
	9	10 December 2012	269,000	N/A
	10	11 December 2012	312,000	N/A
	11	17 December 2012	326,000	6
	12	18 December 2012	314,000	8
	13	18 December 2012	328,000	5

Awards

• In 2007, Young Dracula won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Children's Drama, and the Welsh BAFTA for Best Children's Drama.
• In 2008, Young Dracula was nominated for the BAFTA Children's Drama Award.
• In 2012, "Young Dracula" was nominated for three awards at the Royal Television Society North West awards including Best Programme and for a Kids Vote BAFTA[6]

Release

A DVD of the first series of Young Dracula was released on 15 October 2012.

A DVD of the second and third series of Young Dracula was released in 2013.

A DVD of the Series Four released 9 October 2014

A DVD of the Series Five released 5th Nov 2014

See also

• Vampire film
• List of vampire television series

References

1. Young Dracula at Fantastic Fiction: The cover has a still from the show and the legend "The inspiration for the CBBC TV series"
2. "Waterloo Road heads to Scotland". How-Do. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
3. "CBBC Programmes - Young Dracula, Series 3, Hide and Seek". BBC. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
4. "Behind the scenes at Young Dracula". BBC. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
5. Clare Thomas Prosser [@clarelucythomas] (20 December 2012). "So we've had some good news. Young Dracula WILL be filming again next summer for a 5th Series. Happy Christmas YD fans!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
6. "2008 Children's Awards - Children's - Awards - The BAFTA site". Bafta.org. Retrieved 1 November 2011.

External links

• Young Dracula at BBC Programmes
• Young Dracula on IMDb
• Young Dracula at TV.com