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Wednesday, 19th November, 2008

Published: Thursday, 21st February, 2008 12:30

If this is what Being Human means then I'm happy with that!

By Geek Chic

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The cast of BBC Three's Being Human.

We live in the digital TV age. But it's not as shiny and wonderous as it sounds.

Think less Jetson's futuristic wonder, more Lily Allen getting a series about her Myspace mates despite having less TV presenting charisma than Gordon the Gopher.

And Lenny Henry spinning entire series out of all those You Tube videos you were sent a year ago and weren't actually that funny even then. And - ok, I'm ranting now. But there is a small glimmer of hope.

It's a sad fact of life that most of the quality genre TV I watch nowadays is American. From Battlestar Galactica to Lost, my new favourite Chuck to Pushing Daisies, most of the stuff that rocks my world in the way of original TV is from the other side of the Pond. The only two UK shows which I'll make an effort to catch are Torchwood and Life on Mars - although I will admit to a slightly guilty love of Hotel Babylon. I *know* it's gilted garbage, but it amuses me and at least it doesn't pretend it's anything else - yes, Primeval I'm looking at you.

But yesterday I saw a TV show that has stuck in my mind (I know, for a whole 18 hours so far - I am testament to the average attention span of the digital age!) and which has got me more excited than anything new I've seen for ages. Of course one of the other joys of the digital TV age is the plethora of new channels (and their +1 brethren) that mean keeping track of what you're watching needs an Excel spreadsheet. So if you don't watch BBC Three, like (alas) a lot of the population then you have missed out this gem of a new show - Being Human.

I too missed out on it (my neck of the woods doesn't get digital yet, no matter how often I forlornly post my postcode into the Freeview website) but was badgered by a friend who thought I would love it repeatedly until I had two options (a) watch it to shut him up or (b) drive to his house and kill him to shut him up. Never before have I been so thrilled to have restrained my murderous urges. Although it does pain me to admit he was right.

Smooth Mitchell is a hospital porter. He is also a vampire. He has a dangerous sexy air and cheekbones sharp enough to slice garlic with and thus spends his time embarking on one night stands which inevitably end badly for the women he's sleeping with. Meanwhile his colleague, geeky werewolf George (Russell Tovey) has moved away from his friends and family rather than have them see him disappear into the woods once a month to come back naked and covered in the blood of animals he's spent the night goring. Both of them yearn for a normal life so when Mitchell decides he wants to go cold turkey from siring lady vamps for a bit to enjoy life as two 20 something blokes with a sofa, a fridge full of beer and pizza it's a match made in heaven. So far so faintly endearing odd couple.

But when they find their dream home is haunted by a depressed ghost (Andrea Riseborough who has the kind of eyes that make your heart ache at the sadness she's not sharing) they end up becoming, initially at least, an unwilling triumvirate of non-mortals trying to find their place in the world.

I'm not going to spoil what comes next but suffice to say it's 60 minutes of TV gold. A cracking, witty script, great acting - including Adrian Lester as head of the vampire cult angling to start a war elevating them back to their rightful status above mere mortals - and a soundtrack which sparkles. It's simply ace. And if you watched Spaced and felt like the pop culture references were describing your life then you'll love this, although quite possibly be frightened at the fact you're identifying with a werewolf.

It's still available on the BBC iPlayer for another six days, so go check it out. There are few things worth sitting at your monitor for an hour to watch but this is one of them.

But there's a problem. It's like being introduced to your dream date, heading out for a wonderful meal with lots of laughter and flirting, finding you have loads in common, and then at the end of the night when you're full of the possibilities of what to come they tell you they're moving tomorrow to Papua New Guinea. Forever. For Being Human remains - for now at least - a one off. The BBC are holding off on commissioning a new series. Never mind the row over TV phone voting or alleged news bias - the fact they haven't watched this first episode of this, seen how amazing it is and gone back to the programme makers to beg they immediately give them another six episodes makes me want to demand a refund on my TV licence.

So once you have watched, go sign the online petition lobbying BBC commissioning editors to give it a full series. If Lily gets air time and the (ok but not great) Phoo Action gets time to flourish then *surely* something of this calibre should get its chance? I should probably declare an interest - I actually set the petition up (yes, I like it *that* much, and that's with me being a cynical hack and all) but in the time I've taken writing this blog 15 people who aren't me have signed it so I'm obviously not alone. 15 people! Let's face it that's probably equivalent to the average audience of The Murder Mysteries and Quiz Shows of the 80s Channel + 1 or whatever right there.

So go. Watch. Sign. And in 18 months' time when TV critics across the land are saying they saw the brilliance of this before everyone else, when a full series is being shown on BBC Two and when fans (who will probably have labelled themselves Humanists) are writing erotic fiction to make your eyes bleed about vampire/werewolf fraternisation you will have that warm - and yes, faintly smug - glow that you were here at the beginning when something wonderful was formed.

I promise you it's the best thing you'll see on TV this week.

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