human

i just realized that andrea riseborough, star of the devil's whore (subject of previous entry), also played adorable ghost girl annie in the BBC three pilot being human, a really fantastic one-off supernatural drama that aired earlier this year and then scored a six-part series commission last spring.

it was the story of a young werewolf and a young(-looking) vampire who are trying to lead normal lives. lord knows why, but the show kind of had me at hello, b/c the opening sequence -- intercutting scenes of the werewolf (george) retreating to the wilderness to go through his change and the vampire (mitchell) having a date with a coworker (which ends, shall we say, badly) -- was set to snow patrol's "chasing cars." anyway, they have jobs at the local hospital, and they rent a house together to keep themselves honest or whatev. but the house is haunted by annie, who died in an accident of unknown determination. and of course the three of them form an unlikely trio of misfit weirdo freaks trying to get by in the modern world. the werewolf was played by russell tovey, who played midshipman frame in the doctor who christmas special "voyage of the damned" and was recently briefly caught up in the who-will-be-the-11th-doctor frenzy thanks to an offhand remark made by showrunner russell t. davies. and the vamp was played by guy flanagan, who had the right skinny-pale weird hotness but also had a knack for exuding disaffection as the rebel vamp whose deep alienation from his kind is severely irritating to the defenders of the bloodsucker status quo.

written by toby whithouse, who penned the fantastic who ep "school reunion" (where the doctor is reunited with sarah jane smith and k-9) and the torchwood ep "greeks bearing gifts" (where tosh gets the ability to read minds and predictably learns it's not all it's cracked up to be), the series is still a go, according to this report, and supposed to air some time in early 2009. but, sadly, annie and mitchell have been recast. it's still worth checking out, as the new actors seem to be quality, but the original three (pictured above) had the kind of chemistry that's not so easily reproduced. and i'm especially bummed about annie, who was such a charming chatterbox and had the best accent ever. still, i'll give it a chance, whenever it comes around.