In my early 2018 review of The Square, I wrote “Danish Theatre actor Claes Bang makes a gigantic impression in the lead role of the curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm who may not be as cool as he looks; watch as Bang becomes a massive worldwide star (his spoken English, accented towards British, is perfect).” I avoided suggesting he should be the next Bond, despite the fact that he very, very much looks like a Bond; indeed, he resembles a mash-up of 40something Pierce Brosnan and 40something George Lazenby.
Instead, he’s the new Dracula (Netflix), and he’s wonderful and perfectly cast: even the fact that “British” English is a learned language and accent for him is playfully utilised, as, of course, Count Dracula is Transylvanian. It’s the kind of comic detail that rules this enormously entertaining new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel from Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, who also updated Sherlock in bits and bursts, mostly very well, from 2010 – 2017.
As with that adaptation, Gatiss and Moffat honour the spirit of the original profoundly; they have fun with it but never at the expense of it. They set a perfect tone then get everyone on the same page; here, that tone is wit, camp and playful gore; references to the Hammer films abound, including many shots where Bang is framed to deliberately mimic famous shots from that film series. (Incidentally, in those shots, he looks remarkably like Christopher Lee as well; is there any dark-haired handsome Commonwealth thesp this Dane can’t resemble?)
Special mention must go to Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha. She’s hilarious. “Hilarious?”, you say? Oh yes. Just watch.