Being Human (UK) - Series 4 - Mark Gatiss Interview

Admittedly, it has spent half a series doing the TV equivalent of moving around the furniture, but in recent weeks Being Human has arguably returned to its best, with the new line-up bedding in well. Just in case that wasn't the case, however, BBC3's hit horror comedy has been keeping one last trump card up its sleeve. We saw his arrival trailed in a red-button clip in the first week, but this Sunday, Mark Gatiss arrives as Mr Snow, vampiric leader of the fabled Old Ones.

Gatiss seems to be ticking off a checklist of roles in BBC cult dramas. "I'm cementing my future on the convention circuit!" he quips to the Guardian, but, having worked alongside creator Toby Whithouse on Doctor Who since 2006, Gatiss said yes to the Being Human role immediately. "There was a point when we were filming where I thought to myself, 'I may have waited all my life to play this part'. When I was a kid I used to recreate the end of Dracula, rising from the grave. All these years I've wanted to be king of the vampires, so I had a fantastic time."

Gatiss also looks set to make quite an impact in Being Human. As the leader of the Old Ones, he plays the biggest baddie the show has yet witnessed. "There's nothing like having a good build-up! Toby sent me the script, and at the end of episode seven, when we first arrive, the stage direction is something like 'dark as night and older than dirt!'," he says with glee. "He's so old he doesn't even have a name, so they just call him Mr Snow. It's perfect!"

The arrival of the Old Ones has been the major story arc in this year's Being Human, as they sail in a shipping container to the deliciously named Stoker Imports And Exports on the coast of Barry. And the reason they're starting their incursion there? The show's new resident vampire, OCD recovering psychopath, Hal, played by Damien Molony. "The Old Ones have come back to pick up where they left off with Hal," Gatiss explains. "Hal seems to have escaped them for the past 55 years, and then there's a lovely scene where I say to him I've just give him the afternoon off. Because the timescale that we work on, 55 years is just the blink of an eye."

Gatiss had very specific ideas about what he wanted to bring to the vampire party. "I wanted to do something different with it. Before Dracula they weren't these gothic, Byronic, romantic creatures, they were filthy and disgusting.

"I wanted to have red hair, because you never have ginger vampires, and terrible teeth, and these really dirty fingernails. And they gave me everything I wanted. So there's lots of lovely close-ups of my filthy hands and terrible teeth. He's about 3000 years old, he's literally rotting from the inside."

In fact there was one compromise made. "They asked me if I'd shave my head, and though I've done it before, I really wanted the red hair. But if I came back then I'd shave my head. The full Nosferatu!"

Source: The Guardian

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