Young Dracula

Fandom
Name:	Young Dracula
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:	Danny Robins & Dan Tetsell
Date(s):	21 September 2006 - 08 February 2008
Medium:	television series
Country of Origin:	UK
External Links:	Young Dracula at Wikipedia
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Young Dracula is a British television series about the Dracula family.

Introduction

Young Dracula follows the antics of the Dracula family who, due to a misunderstanding with local peasants, are forced to relocate from Transylvania to suburban Britain. The titular Young Dracula is the infamous Count's son, Vlad, who abhors the prospect of becoming a full vampire on his sixteenth birthday. Much of the show revolves around Vlad's attempts to find a cure for vampirism and, in the meanwhile, fit in with the human population of their new hometown.

This is made more difficult by his sister Ingrid's propensity to cause havoc everywhere she goes, his father's inability to keep his fangs to himself, and the desire of local slayer, woodwork teacher Eric Van Helsing, to bag a vampire. Vlad cannot even look to 'breather' best friend Robin Branagh for help. Obsessed with vampires, Robin cannot understand why Vlad keeps complaining about his destiny.

Fundamentally this comedy was about friends and family, and how we love them in spite of their faults.

The show ran for two series between 2006 and 2008, or a total of 27 half hour episodes. The second series ended on a dramatic cliffhanger, with the assumption a third series would be give the go ahead. However, due to a lack of funds, changing programming remits within CBBC, and other acting commitments, this failed to materialise. Craig O'Connor of the BBC complaints department explained in August 2008: While we know that the series was greatly enjoyed by our viewers, we have to consider CBBC as a whole and have to be mindful that with the very limited resources available to us the production of further series would affect other CBBC programmes.

Loosely based on the book of the same name by popular children's author Michael Lawrence, the show was a ratings winner for the BBC. It was directed by children's BBC favourite, Joss Agnew, and starred a number of well known faces. Craig Roberts, for instance, had already worked with Agnew on popular CBBC show The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Fan Activism

Whilst the show was still on air fan activity clustered around its fanpop page. It was here that fans vented their anger at the BBC's refusal to produce a third series. Active members of the forum such as babybell and spirited_away organised an email writing campaign and a petition in the hope it would convince the BBC to change their mind. A facebook group was set up and videos were posted to YouTube to rally support for the petition. Unfortunately these attempts were futile, the BBC officially ruling out any further Young Dracula episodes by August 2008.

For some time there was talk of an external production company obtaining the rights to produce a television movie, picking up where series two left off. This was discussed vigorously on the numerous Bebo fan pages devoted to the show. This was also ruled out by the end of 2008. At this point the fandom in places like Bebo and Fanpop began to dwindle, along with the interest in the actor playing Vlad Dracula, Gerran Howell, which had sustained much of the discussion in these forums.

As the first wave of fans left, Young Dracula fandom was repopulated with newcomers who saw the show on their local networks (the BBC has sold the show to a number of territories, including the US, Scandinavia and Australia) or via YouTube.

Fandom

Although a small fandom, there is a fair amount of fanwork online. Hundreds of pieces of fanfiction as well as dozens of fanvids and pieces of fanart.

The first piece of Young Dracula fanfiction, Defy You, was posted to Fanfiction.net in December 2007 by werepuppyblack. This was followed by Something More in January 2008, the first YD fanwork to introduce the idea of a romantic relationship between Vlad and Robin. This would go on to become the most popular ship in YD fandom.

In February 2008 haylz4000 set up the lovebitesvr Livejournal community, dedicated to the Vlad / Robin ship. This remains one of the most active centre of Young Dracula fan activity on the net. In March the general livejournal community, young_dracula, was created, although this did not see the same level of activity.

Links and Resources

• Young Dracula (TV) at Archive of Our Own
• Young Dracula at FanFiction.Net
• "Dream About You" by ssquirrel_fic, a Robin Branagh/Vladimir Dracula ship manifesto (October 2009)