Dracula series inspired by Benedict Cumberbatch's shadow

\'Dracula\' was inspired by Benedict Cumberbatch\'s shadow.

Show boss Mark Gatiss - who worked with the 43-year-old actor on \'Sherlock\' - has revealed how the star of the BBC detective drama helped spark the idea of adapting Bram Stoker\'s iconic horror tale for the small screen.

Gatiss - who created the upcoming show with Steven Moffat - told Pilot TV magazine: "The truth is we were making Sherlock, two days into shooting the first series and we had to come back for the Royal Television Society Awards.

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"I had this photo on my phone of Benedict Cumberbatch silhouetted against Mrs Hudson\'s door, and I showed Ben Stephenson who was then head of BBC drama, \'Oooh it looks like Dracula, doesn\'t it?\' And he went, \'Do you want to do it?\' "

However, Gatiss joked he would like to have come up with a more exciting response when asked about the inspiration for the programme.

He joked: "Well, I\'m conscious whatever we say now will be the story we\'ll be telling for the next ten years so I might pretend that we were in a hot-air balloon over Marrakech."

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Gatiss and former \'Doctor Who\' boss Moffat have been hard at work on the new show, and the latter previously admitted how difficult it was to work on a project where the lead character is also the villain.

He said: "There\'s lots of things that are challenging about \'Dracula\'.

"Having an evil lead character is actually really difficult. That\'s been the main challenge I think. But how we\'ve handled, that you\'ll have to wait and see."

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The new adaptation starts in Transylvania in 1897, with the bloodthirsty count - played by Claes Bang - drawing up plans against Victorian London.

No release date has been confirmed, but the highly anticipated series will air on BBC One in the UK and Netflix around the world.