After a successful pilot episode earlier this year, Being Human is returning for a full, six-episode series on BBC Three.

The drama - being filmed now in Bristol - revolves around a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost sharing a house together.

The pilot was, to all intents and purposes, a huge success - notching up critical acclaim, almost half a million viewers and an internet petition calling for a full series. The wish was granted.

Now, for the series proper, producers have made a number of changes to the format - including drafting in a new cast.



The only survivor from the pilot is Russell Tovey, who plays George, the nerdy hospital porter battling with his double identity as a predatory werewolf.

Aidan Turner (RTÉ's The Clinic) takes over from Guy Flanagan as Mitchell, the laid-back vampire who is struggling to go 'cold turkey' from the whole blood-sucking thing.

Replacing Andrea Riseborough in the role of Annie is Lenora Crichlow, best known for playing Sugar in C4 lesbian drama Sugar Rush. Annie is the talkative but unconfident ghost, who is trapped in the house that George and Mitchell come to inhabit.

"Having a new cast is mainly to do with the slight tonal shift in the show," producer Matt Bouch tells me. "We wanted to go slightly younger, mainly because [the pilot] skewed perhaps slightly too old for BBC Three's target audience."

Also reworked is the vampires-taking-over-the-world subplot led by a character named Herrick (Adrian Lester). Now Herrick is a more down-to-earth chappy, played by Jason Watkins (Funland), who attempts to turn Mitchell back to the dark side.

As for how the pilot fits into the master plan, try to forget it. "The pilot has been put on the shelf and won't be retransmitted. This is essentially a new show," Bouch adds. "We are re-introducing all of the characters and assuming that the audience have no knowledge at all of the pilot."

Being Human will air early next year on BBC Three.

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