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What We Do in the Shadows, review: squeezing the juice out of delicious vampire gags

Natasia Demetriou as Nadja and Matt Berry as Laszlo - 1
Natasia Demetriou as Nadja and Matt Berry as Laszlo - 1

Vampires are allergic to sunlight and garlic, but what happens when you expose them to a more corrosive force such as a documentary film crew? Might a bloodsucker’s fearsome status crumple if their every move were captured on camera? This niche scenario is explored in What We Do in the Shadows (BBC Two, Sunday), a new sitcom which has much fun sinking its gnashers into the undeadly brand.

The concept hails from New Zealand, where it started out in 2005 as a short film that grew to feature length in 2014. Its originators have a splendid pedigree: Jemaine Clement of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords and Taika Waititi made the delightful film Hunt for the Wilderpeople. The FX channel (where the series is shown in the US) has transplanted the idea to Staten Island with a new British cast, retaining the folky Sixties theme tune (You’re Dead by Norma Tanega).

There’s perhaps not much fresh juice left in the mockumentary format mined so fruitfully from This Is Spinal Tap to W1A. There was one moment of delicious invention when the skeletal ghoul Baron Afanas (Doug Jones) emerged from his coffin and did a double take when he spotted the crew. “It’s like they’re not even here,” he was reassured.

Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillen as Guillermo
Kayvan Novak and Harvey Guillen as Guillermo

The script runs on bathos. None of the characters can quite live up to their own self-image. The preening Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) is so monickered, he said with an immodest shrug, “because I just never relent”. His tubby unloved underling Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) explains that being a vampire slave is “like being a best friend… who is also a slave”.

Then there’s Laszlo (Matt Berry) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), who look much diminished sitting in adjacent chairs being interviewed like any bickering couple. Laszlo claimed to have been the most handsome man in a village which was, Nadja drily added, much affected by leprosy.

There were gags about sex, blood and death, plus worshipful nods to Twilight and Interview with a Vampire. Whether the basic joke is enough for a whole series remains to be seen.