Sky Living’s take on Dracula looks gorgeous, but where’s the heart and soul?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been giving me the eye. By that I mean his elegant, square-jawed fizzog has been staring out at me from the cover of a preview disc. I let him glare at me for a few days while I pondered the notion of Meyers taking on the most famous vampire ever committed to the big or small screen. Could he pull off Bram Stoker’s legendary creation? I was definitely intrigued. But after having seen the opening instalment of Sky Living’s new series Dracula, I’m in the unusual position of not being completely sure how I feel about what I’ve watched.

The story begins with the raising of the long-dead count thanks to the blood of a hapless stooge, and swiftly decamps from a musty tomb in God knows where, to the upper echelons of Victorian London society, where Meyer’s vampire transforms himself into swanky Yank inventor Alexander Grayson. At a bash he’s thrown for the poshest of the posh, he unveils his grand design: to produce free electricity using what looks like the biggest pot of boiling tea in the world. Clever.

Naturally, some of the assembled, bewhiskered moneymen are left bristling and sneering at the display – but as the story unfolds, Grayson has plans for these high-rolling chaps, whose interests lie in coal and oil, that go way beyond merely nicking their energy customers.

Meanwhile, at the same party, Grayson meets Mina Murray – a budding scientist who captures his eye, thanks to the fact she’s a dead ringer for his one-time wife, who met a sticky end thanks to something called the Order of the Dragon (cue the flashback and exposition as we discover the toothy one’s real motivation for coming to London…)

Dracula almost literally oozes money. The sets are both plush and epic, every frame is richly decorated, every cast member immaculately groomed… I could go on, but none of this beauty can distract me from something nagging at the back of my mind…

It is not bad, most definitely not. Meyer relies on that thousand-yard stare of his a little too much for my liking, but I’m clinging to the hope his US accent and performance will both get a little smoother as the series progresses. No, it’s something else. For all it’s sumptuousness, it’s as though Dracula has no soul, no passion. All the focus and attention has gone into making it look fabulous, but someone forgot to give it a heart.

I fervently hope that will change in subsequent episodes, because if it does, then this will be one of the best bits of escapism on the box. If not, well, we may need a stake – and sharpish…

THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN OF IT

WHAT’S IT CALLED?

Dracula

WHEN IS IT ON?

9pm, Thursday, October 31

WHAT CHANNEL?

Sky Living

WHO’S IN IT?

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Victoria Smurfit, Thomas Kretschmann, Katie McGrath

WHO SHOULD WATCH IT?

Folk who thought The Tudors was brilliant – even toward the end.

WHO SHOULDN’T WATCH IT?

Anyone who still loves Francis Ford Coppola’s overblown and daft movie version. They’ll be massively underwhelmed.