The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Being Human started life as part of the series of pilots early last year on BBC3′s new talent slot which also gave us Phoo Action, which was down for an actual series afterwards but it appears to have fizzled out. Being Human, however, the story of a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost sharing a house, did make it to a series, although of the three original leads only one actor, Russell Tovey (who’s also been seen in hit comedy Gavin and Stacey and Doctor Who – in fact Russell T Davies said he thought Tovey would have made a great Doctor himself) is returning to his role, playing George, the mild mannered lad who has a slight case of lycanthropy every month…

(Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey and Lenora Crichlow in Being Human, (c) BBC)

Following the series of pilots there was quite a groundswell of public support for Being Human, especially on the web and via social networking sites like FaceBook demanding the BBC give it a chance as an actual series. I must admit, I was quite taken with the pilot too and was hoping it would get the chance (I enjoyed Phoo Action too as gloriously silly, but really it didn’t seem to me to have the substance for a whole series), so I’m pleased to see the Beeb listened to the fans. Its a shame about the cast changes from the pilot (I liked the original cast, but I’m sure the new cast will win us over) and apparently there are some other changes too (to the tone and supernatural world around them), but the main thing is the concept is (thanks to audience pressure) getting a chance to show if it can make it as a series. The first episode is on BBC3 on Sunday 25th January (Burns Night, as it happens) at 9pm.