Being Humans Best

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The show’s creator, Toby Whithouse, picks his five personal favourite moments from the series. Words by Narin Bahar

George’s Kitchen Transformation

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Episode: 1.1
First transmitted: 25 January 2009
Fact: Toby credits Julie Gardner (then head of BBC Wales, as well as executive producer on Doctor Who) for coming up with the idea of having George transform in the house.

Toby Whithouse: I think what I love about this segment is that it’s quintessentially what the show is about – the supernatural invading the domestic. Toby [Haynes] did a fantastic job directing it. He was a total unknown at the time, and what we liked when we met him was that he really he wanted to explore the moments of horror in the show. That sequence where Annie peeks through, then the werewolf snaps up and roars and she rentaghosts outside wasn’t in the original script, that was Toby’s idea. He was saying, “This is a show that uses horror archetypes so we should also use horror tricks and techniques.” That was something I hadn’t factored into the scripts and I’ve probably used them 100 times since.

There’s another moment that articulates the show’s tone and that’s when George is standing there naked waiting for this terrible thing to happen and Annie says awkwardly, “Oh, I see someone’s moved into number 43…”

I think that exemplifies what our show’s about, not only the invasion of the supernatural into the domestic, but also the way that we’ll always deliberately break the moment, cutting tension with a gag.

I wasn’t there on the day they filmed this scene, so seeing the rushes afterwards was utterly exhilarating. When I see the rushes of, say, one of the episodes of Doctor Who I’ve written, you see the Doctor and the companion being chased down a corridor by a guy holding a tennis ball on a stick. But on the rushes of Being Human you’re looking at the actual creature on screen. It’s very exciting.

The original version of this feature can be found in The SFX Best Of British Special (opens in new tab) – on sale now

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