The Reluctant Vampire
Our Review
What happens
Val has grown up inside a vampire family in a gothic castle above an English village, and has never once questioned what he is. Then his mother Valeeta drops the bomb: he is not a vampire. He is, and always has been, human. Finding this out on the eve of the family’s big coming-of-blood ceremony is, to use the technical term, bad timing.
So begins the double life: by night, keeping up appearances for his pompous patriarch father Victor, who despises humans and cannot stop monologuing about draining them; by day, sneaking into the village to discover what normal is, with his suspicious little brother Vernon permanently one step from exposing him and his mum feeding him advice that helps less than she thinks. Adapted by Neil and Rob Gibbons (the Alan Partridge men) from the 1982 children’s novel by Eric Morecambe and its sequel, with Gary Morecambe as script consultant, and produced by Boffola Pictures.
Our take: the Guardian called it an absolute joy and the review does not overstate it. The Gibbons brothers keep the book’s warmth, smuggle adult jokes into the corners for the parents on the sofa, and get a career-best turn out of Lenny Rush as Val. Tom Davis makes Victor a masterpiece of self-importance, Sian Clifford plays the mum as the only emotionally literate vampire in history, and Bill Bailey and Ross Noble are the gargoyles who comment on everything from the battlements. Best single element: the central inversion. Every coming-of-age story asks a kid to rebel against the family; this one makes the rebellion be ordinary life, and finds the sentiment hiding inside the joke without ever getting soppy.
Verdict: 8/10. The best family comedy on telly right now, and the spooky-season treat for people whose tolerance for grimdark vampire shows expired years ago. Six episodes, half an hour each, and the whole box set is out.
Who should watch and why: anyone with kids old enough for sit-coms, anyone who loved Addams Family animated-film energy, and anyone who wants something genuinely funny on after dinner. It is a kids’ show in the way Paddington is a kids’ show, which is to say it is a very good film/show that happens to include children.
Question: is Val better off staying in the castle or coming clean? Tell us where you’d draw the line.
Where to watch
All six episodes are on BBC iPlayer now, having dropped as a box set on 4 October 2026. BBC One runs them weekly on Sundays at 18:40 (the finale lands 8 November). In the US, BBC America and Tubi carry BBC comedies of this kind; expect it there within the window the usual deals run, not yet listed.
