WHY DON'T YOU STAY FOR A BITE?

THE VAMPIRE COMES HOME AS DIRECTOR EUROS LYN WELCOMES SFX TO HIS NEW DARK COMEDY THE RADLEYS

- CLARISSE LOUGHREY

FRESH MEAT! FRESH MEAT!” director Euros Lyn shouts, mischief in his voice. He’s on the set of his new film, Sky’s dark vampire comedy The Radleys, and there’s a herd of partygoer extras, potential snacks for a hungry coffin dweller, whose attention he requires.

It’s early afternoon, in the peak of summer, during one of 2023’s waves of blinding sunshine, and SFX is spending it in the dark. We’re hovering on the sidelines of Watford’s PRYZM nightclub, in a room lined with embossed studs and giant mirrors. Any and every surface is in danger of being sticky to the touch. Suddenly, an extra in a dog costume walks past. They blend into the crowd. Mesh T-shirts. Slicked, gelled-back hair. Dry ice. Blood-red spotlights.

Yet it’s easy to spot him, with his tattoos, luridly patterned, open shirt and shoulder-length, shaggy locks. He looms over everyone else. It’s Damien Lewis, as you’ve never seen the Homeland and Wolf Hall star before, playing rock ’n’ roll vamp Will Radley. In costume, he looks like the kind of guy who’d try to sell you a used gold tooth.

Will’s the devil that perches on the shoulder of his teenage nephew, Rowan (Harry Baxendale). He’s an out-and-proud vampire, who feasts whenever and on whomever he likes. Rowan’s father, Peter, meanwhile, is what they call an “abstainer”, a vampire who goes without blood and lives a regulated existence.

He’s raised his family, who have inherited his condition, with the aid of The Abstainer’s Handbook – frequently quoted in Matt Haig’s bestselling source novel. “Be proud to act like a normal human being,” one extract goes. “Keep daylight hours, get a regular job, and mix in the company of people with a fixed sense of right and wrong.”

Peter is also played by Lewis. He and Will are twins, a vampiric Romulus and Remus.