DRACULA

Arthur (Dan Stevens, TV's FRANKENSTEIN) and John (Tom Burke, THE LIBERTINE) have long been friends, both stemming from privileged backgrounds. But they both yearn for the hand of the same lady - the demure Lucy (Sophia Myles, TRISTAN & ISOLDE; THUNDERBIRDS). Arthur proposes to Lucy and she accepts, much to John's distaste.

However, Arthur is summoned to his father's estate in Whitby to find the old man on his death bed. After his father dies, Arthur is horrified when the family doctor tells him the cause of death was syphilis. Worryingly, it also killed his mother years earlier and the doctor believes Arthur has been infected since birth. His wedding to Lucy, the doctor warns, must not go ahead.

Rather than cancel the nuptials, Arthur holds a garden party where he tells his upper-class friends the festivities have simply been postponed. But Lucy, oblivious to his problem, insists they will marry soon. Among the guests at the garden party are aspiring solicitor Jonathan Harker (Rafe Spall, HOT FUZZ) and his beautiful girlfriend Mina (Stephanie Leonidas, MIRRORMASK).

Shortly afterwards, Harker is sent on business to Transylvania. He is told of a Count Dracula (Marc Warren, GREEN STREET), who has commissioned his Chelsea-based partner Mr Singleton to buy some UK properties on his behalf. Harker's job is to get the Count to sign papers at his end.

But, as Harker lands on foreign soil and meets the decrepit old Count for a night in his creepy castle, we learn that Harker's boss has been shot dead in his office. With Harker away longer than expected and not getting in touch with Mina, and all traces of a Transylvanian client having been erased, it seems the police suspect Harker of murder.

What could be worse than being wanted for killing your boss? Well, Harker falls prey to Dracula - who has fallen for a photo of Mina. Dracula bites his guest in the night to rejuvenate himself. Sucking the blood from Harker's neck, the Count emerges as a handsome young man.

It transpires Harker has been used in a bogus business transaction set up by Singleton, to get Dracula to the UK. Arthur has hired the Count's services, through Singleton, to perform a transfusion that will hopefully cure him of his disease. After all, he's married by this point and Lucy's desperate to consummate it ...

But when the Count arrives on British soil he takes no time in tracking down Mina, who is staying with Arthur and Lucy while grieving over her missing beau.

Arthur finds Dracula at his home, charming his wife and Mina - and doesn't like what he sees. Despite being furious, Arthur agrees to let Dracula stay in order to carry out his secret service.

Bad mistake. That night, Dracula visits Lucy in her bed while Arthur sleeps beside her. They embrace, his spell enchanting her as he sucks the blood from her neck, and she from his nipple. The first part of the transfusion has begun ...

The following morning, Lucy is ill and Arthur must call upon the services of his old friend John - a prominent doctor - to help save her life. Oh, yes, the ageing Abraham Van Helsing (David Suchet, ACT OF GOD; A PERFECT MURDER) turns up to help too, once the Count's true disposition has been realised ...

ITV don't have a good track record for dramas of late. Aside from PRIME SUSPECT and the ongoing TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION series, they have very little to boast about. So news that they were developing a one-off feature-length drama of Bram Stoker's novel for Christmas 2006 was met with a mixture of anticipation and dread.

It starts off decently, making good use of its London and Whitby locations. The scenery is great to begin with, and complimented by some atmospheric, often beautiful photography. The period costumes and interior decor are nicely observed, while the dialogue - if a little laughable at times - is true of it's era.

The leanings toward the medical sides of the story are interesting too, offering neat asides to the superstitions and misdiagnoses of the time.

But other than these points of interest - and a finale which offers more gore than I'd expected - the overriding feeling towards this adaptation was ... what's the point?

With Bela Lugosi still legendary for his hokum performance as the Count many decades ago, Christopher Lee widely regarded as delivering the definitive version of Dracula to the screen, and Francis Ford Coppola's overblown Gothic rethinking still sticking in our throats ... is there really room for Marc Warren's misguided interpretation?

Warren can't quite get his teeth into the role (groan!). He mimics Gary Oldman's superior portrayal in the early scenes (beneath some lamentably bad old-age make-up) and translates directions such as "seductive" and "enigmatic" as "bug-eyed" and "geeky".

He's not alone. A few performances are duff, including the usually reliable Suchet in an embarrassingly OTT rendition of Van Helsing. It doesn't help that the characters are all so cold and pompous either - they're impossible to care about. It's only because Warren himself is so devoid of that all-important screen-presence that he doesn't win our sympathy totally.

Director Bill Eagles (having worked on odd episodes of TV programmes like CSI and INVASION) deserves some of the flack too. His attempts at tapping into the underlying eroticism of Stoker's story are so heavy-handed as to be unintentionally hilarious. And whatever horror there is, it's reduced to a near-afterthought: things take an age to get going - when they do, Eagles is overly keen to wrap it all up.

Still, a fresh perspective on the back-story and some lush photography save this from being an unmitigated disaster.

The disc offers the movie uncut in it's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It's enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Images are generally bright and sharp, although grain is evident in some darker scenes.

The English 2.0 audio works well, with a competent well-balanced sound. Optional English hard-of-hearing subtitles are available.

A static scene selection menu page allows access to the feature via 8 chapters.

No extras.

For DRACULA completists only!

Review by Stu Willis