A Bat Out Of Halal

The team behind Count Abdulla bring Muslim vampires to ITV

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THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of vampires in pop culture. They’ve come in the form of a pompous Tom Cruise, a sexy, snake-enchanting Salma Hayek and a sparkly Robert Pattinson. They’ve been good, evil, gay, straight and occasionally puppets, but ITV’s six-part horror-comedy Count Abdulla asks the question: what if they were Muslim?

For series director Asim Abbasi, “I think it enhances the vampire myth, as it’s always been about the one that didn’t have a reflection and couldn’t see themselves in society. I gravitated towards the story so much as a chance to use this metaphor of othering that’s been used in other scenarios but never been applied to South Asians and Muslims.”

Beyond the potential metaphors around Islam and the vampire myth, there are also practical considerations because, as Abbasi points out, “Blood is not halal!”

KATHY’S CLOWN

The series’ eponymous vampire (Arian Nik) is a young British-Pakistani doctor caught between pleasing his conservative family and cutting loose with his friends. But things get more complicated when Kathy, a part-time dominatrix and full-time vampire, turns him into one of her own.