Ultraviolet

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Running Time: 65 minutes (approx)

Ultraviolet is a stylish, modern thriller set in London in the 20th Century, where a secret war is being waged between humans and vampires.

This series cleverly used the vampire myth and updated it: the vampires don't turn into anything as convenient or recognisable as monsters, as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the like; they look like us, they act like us, and they don't kill to feed, meaning that there is no clear judgement of good or evil, or at least there doesn't appear to be. This allows the vampires to play psychological games, asking questions there are no clean, convenient answers for:

If Jack can't tell the difference, and you can't tell the difference, are we really that different?

But they are still evil, aren't they? They still drink blood, but does this really justify extermination without fair trial? It's up to the viewer to decide.

Although not a mainstream success, Ultraviolet was a very good series and gained a well-deserved cult status. It never mentioned the word 'vampire', using instead 'Code V' to refer to anything pertaining to them, and 'leech' for the vampires themselves. This code helped the show to avoid being pigeon-holed too quickly, getting it a 9pm time slot. It was also quite clever in the way that it brought the vampire myth into the modern day - out of the Gothic cul-de-sac it had got stuck in.