Count Abdulla

Is comedy back in the ITV building?

ITV has a tricky relationship with sitcoms, doesn't it? 

ITV's hit horror Count Abdulla: Being a Muslim vampire is complicated

A new ITV horror comedy Count Abdulla brings Muslim representation to a subgenre lacking in diversity.

You may think the schedules are already stalked quite enough by supernatural forces, but Count Abdulla (ITVX) is a six-part horror comedy with a Muslim twist. Written by Kaamil Shah and directed by Asim Abbasi, it tells the story of a lovelorn British-Pakistani doctor (Arian Nik), who gets bitten by an East End dominatrix vampire (played by Jaime Winstone as a kind of Cynthia Payne of the undead) and henceforth flinches from garlic naan and feels the urge to drink from blood bags.

A few episodes in, it's clear Count Abdulla owes a sizeable debt to What We Do In The Shadows, and it can all get very rough and silly. But it's energetic, imaginative and has plenty of fun with the race-horror mashup.

Gossip from ITVX Comedy Showcase

Alan Carr feared putting a curse on the young actor picked to play him as a lad. Katherine Parkinson reckons creating chemistry with a co-star is almost impossible - unless you fancy them. Jaime Winstone was meant to play a classic Essex girl in ITVX comedy Count Abdulla. But she convinced bosses to ditch the typecasting and let her be a punk dominatrix vampire.