10. Ultraviolet (1998)
A cult TV show on Channel 4, this was a dark, gritty and classy take on the vampire tale before the vampire craze exploded. I wonder if Toby Whitehouse's
Being Human was at least partly inspired by this show - vampires that are invisible to recording technology as they are to mirrors and adapting to modern society, their end goal in this case to create synthesized blood and wipe out humanity with a genetic plague. It was the first role for Jack Davenport post-
This Life and he clearly demonstrated the ability to take another leading role - this time discovering what killed his best friend Jack (Stephen Moyer here in a pre-
True Blood but playing a vampire very well) and joining a sinister government organisation to fight the vampire threat. A younger Idris Elba plays a cold and ruthless agent with the same commanding presence we would see in his leading role in
Luther. What
was really interesting bout this show was the attempt to try something very different with vampire lore. The word vampire is never used (they are known as code fives - as in the roman numeral V) and the cases are not what you would expect from a show about supernatural blood suckers. The cases are more scientific lead (close in many respects to
The X Files), focusing on vampire-related diseases, the creation of fake blood (Very
True Blood) and the impregnation of a woman with a vampire fetus. Its a show that dared to do something different and took the lead on many of the shows we see today.