Mark Gatiss has dropped hints about his forthcoming guest role on Being Human.
The Sherlock actor will appear in the final two episodes of the paranormal drama's fourth series.
"I wanted to do something different with it," he told The Guardian. "Before Dracula, [vampires] weren't these gothic, Byronic, romantic creatures, they were filthy and disgusting.
"I wanted to have red hair, because you never have ginger vampires, and terrible teeth, and these really dirty fingernails. And they gave me everything I wanted.
"So there's lots of lovely close-ups of my filthy hands and terrible teeth. He's about 3,000 years old, he's literally rotting from the inside."
Gatiss added that his character Mr Snow arrives in pursuit of fellow vampire Hal (Damien Molony).
"The Old Ones have come back to pick up where they left off with Hal," he explained. "Hal seems to have escaped them for the past 55 years, and then there's a lovely scene where I say to him I've just given him the afternoon off. Because the timescale that we work on, 55 years is just the blink of an eye."
He described filming on the BBC Three series, which also stars Lenora Crichlow and Michael Socha, as "fantastic".
"When I was a kid I used to recreate the end of Dracula, rising from the grave," he admitted. "All these years I've wanted to be king of the vampires, so I had a fantastic time."
Being Human continues on Sunday at 9pm on BBC Three. In the US, the show airs on Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC America.
