Of all of the adaptations of Bram Stoker‘s novel that have made claims for authenticity – everything from Jesus Franco’s 1970 version to Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and beyond – this epic version from the BBC, first broadcast on Thursday 22 December 1977 over two and a half hours (with a 5 minute break for a news update – it wasn’t originally a mini-series as is sometimes mistakenly claimed) can perhaps most legitimately lay claim to the title. Directed by Philip Saville from a script by Gerald Savory, it combines some characters, changes the relationship between others and, presumably for budgetary reasons, downplays the voyage of the Demeter but otherwise, this is a remarkable faithful take on the novel. The length (never a problem as the production canters along at a fair old clip) allows for the inclusion of moments from the book that rarely survive the transition to the screen.

The story of the English solicitor Jonathan Harker (Bosco Hogan) who travels to Transylvania to help Count Dracula (Louis Jourdan) to purchase Carfax Abbey is well enough known now of course and Savory‘s adaptation hits all of the beats from the novel. Changes include making Lucy (Susan Penhaligon) and Mina (Judi Bowker) sisters and combining two characters into the American Quincey P. Holmwood (Richard Barnes) but otherwise the story remains as close to the book as it’s probably possible to be. Dracula travels to England, enslaves the insane Renfield (Jack Shepherd), pursues Lucy and Mina and is in return pursued by Dutch vampire expert Professor Van Helsing (Frank Finlay), Dr John Seward (Mark Burns), Harker and Holmwood.

Perhaps inspired by the success of Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), which the BBC had broadcast in 1975 and 1976, Count Dracula was seen as a prestige project by the BBC – popular rumour (possibly entirely wrong as these things often tend to be) has it that a serial about vampires written for Doctor Who was abandoned for that year’s series in case people regarded it as a spoof. There’s certainly plenty of evidence that decent money was spent on Count Dracula – all the money is there on the screen, from Michael Young‘s gorgeous sets and Kenneth Morey’s costumes to an impressive cast and location shooting that took Dracula to the real Whitby for the first time on screen.

It doesn’t all work of course. That traditional mix of shot-on-video for interiors and 16mm for location work so prevalent in British television from the time (and remembered with nostalgia in some quarters) can sometimes be jarring and disruptive of atmosphere (though it’s all beautifully lit and shot by Howard King and Peter Hall), and the decision to use electronic solarisation effects from time to time now seems inexplicable (they were awful then, they’re embarrassing now, as is a peculiar animated effect to suggest Dracula materialising in Lucy’s bedroom), but Count Dracula gets so much right that such minor quibbles seem churlish. It’s all very experimental by the standards of BBC drama of the day, though not always to good effect.

A lot of this is due to the excellent work of a superb cast. Louis Jourdan seemed at first to be an unlikely choice to take the title role but turned out to be inspired. His matinee idol looks, and suave demeanour may not be quite what Stoker had in mind but his commanding performance places him alongside Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi as among the finest of screen Draculas. His arrogance and supreme confidence mean that he makes no bones about his supernatural nature, not trying to hide from Harker that he casts no reflection in a mirror for example. Frank Finlay is terrific too as Van Helsing, gamely tackling a creditable Dutch accent and playing his vampire slayer as a deeply religious and committed man who’s also capable of acts of great compassion.

Among the supporting cast, Hogan and Shepherd are excellent while the two female parts are unusually well developed and rise to the occasion with great performances from Bowker and Penhaligon– the latter’s death throes, equal parts sensual, agonised and enraged and her subsequent reappearance as a vampire and surprisingly gory destruction are beautifully played and one of the production’s most memorable sequences. Bowker is marvellous too as Mina, “the wisest of us all,” particularly good in the climactic scenes where, partially vampirised, she’s unable to cross a protective circle of broke communion wafers as the brides (Susie Hickford, Belinda Meuldijk and Sue Vanner) advance on her and Van Helsing but still has the wherewithal to take out one of Dracula’s gypsy manservants. The only performance that doesn’t work comes from former pop star Richard Barnes whose composite character Quincy P. Holmwood (part Quincey Morris, part Arthur Holmwood) sports a dreadful cod-American accent.

Savory, already a veteran of British and American television by 1977, does a fine job in adapting the novel. As noted, there are several scenes from the book that were making very rare screen appearances here – Dracula crawling down the walls of his castle (note the subtle tilt of Jourdan‘s head, suggesting that Dracula is aware that Harker can see him but doesn’t care); the red-eyed brides feasting on a baby (it’s all done by suggestion of course but brilliantly so and its removal from some US broadcasts suggests perhaps why adapters are so averse to including it); and various minor characters, like Mr Swales (George Malpas), the solicitor Hawkins (Michael Macowan) and Lucy’s mother (Ann Queensberry), get a rare moment in the spotlight.

Savory would go on to write Rude Awakening for the Hammer House of Horror (1980) anthology series and penned another Gothic adaptation for the BBC, the less well-regarded Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde that same year with David Hemmings taking the title roles. Saville, a former actor with a string of appearances in British B movies of the 50s and 60s, had directed episodes of Orson Welles Great Mysteries (1973-1974) and Play for Today (1970-1984), including the horror inflected The Rainbirds (1971) and the highly stylized Gangsters (1975) that he helped turn into a subsequent series that ran two series from 1976 to 1978. In the genre, he went on to direct Meriel, the Ghost Girl (1976) for the Mind Beyond sub-strand of BBC2 Playhouse, the feature film Shadey (1985) and television mini-series The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (1986), First Born (1988) and The Cloning of Joanna May (1992). They did much fine work in their careers but little that was as good and as affectionately remembered as Count Dracula.

Following its first broadcast on British television, Count Dracula was repeated twice in 1979 in a new, three-episode format which is likely where the misunderstanding about it being a mini-series comes from. A two -part version was shown in April 1993 and in the States, the three-episode version was shown on PBS under its Great Performances umbrella in March 1978 and over Halloween 1979.

Crew
Directed by: Philip Saville; © BBC MCMLXXVII [1977]; BBC; Producer: Morris Barry; [Written] By [opening credits] Dramatised by [end credits]: Gerald Savory; A gothic romance based on the Bram Stoker‘s Dracula; Studio Lighting: Howard King; Film Cameraman: Peter Hall; Video-Tape Editor: Rod Waldron; Film Editor: Richard Bedford; Music Composed and Conducted by: Kenyon Emrys-Roberts; Costume Designer: Ken Morey; Make-up Artist: Suzan Broad; Visual Effects Designer: Tony Harding; Designer: Michael Young

Cast
Louis Jourdan (Count Dracula); Frank Finlay (Professor Van Helsing); Susan Penhaligon (Lucy Westenra); Judi Bowker (Wilhelmina Westenra); Mark Burns (Dr John Seward); Jack Shepherd (Renfield); Bosco Hogan (Jonathan Harker); Richard Barnes (Quincy P. Holmwood); Ann Queensberry (Mrs Westenra); George Raistrick (Bowles); George Malpas (Swales); Michael Macowan (Mr Hawkins); Susie Hickford, Belinda Meuldijk, Sue Vanner (brides of Dracula); Bruce Wightman, Izabella Telezynska, O.T. (passengers on coach)

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