List of Being Human (British TV series) characters

This is a list of fictional characters in the British supernatural drama-comedy television series Being Human. The series stars Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey and Lenora Crichlow as three twenty-something characters sharing a house in Bristol, trying to live a normal social life, despite being a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost respectively.

Main characters

Annie Sawyer

Annie Sawyer
Being Human character
First appearance	Pilot
Created by	Toby Whithouse
Portrayed by	Lenora Crichlow Andrea Riseborough (Pilot)
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Bartender
Relatives	Owen (fiancé) Carmen (mother)

Anna "Annie" Clare Sawyer (Lenora Crichlow) is an insecure ghost who haunts the house she and her fiancé lived in while she was alive, and is unwilling to leave it. Annie appears in the clothes she was wearing when she died which change subtly depending on her state of mind. In publicity photos, to highlight her condition Annie is shown with a glowing aura and as possessing a degree of transparency, but in the series itself she has no such effect, appearing just as corporeal as the other characters around her. It was believed that Annie simply 'fell awkwardly' down the stairs but it is revealed that Annie was pushed by her fiancé, Owen, after he found a thong in her possession. He confronted her, and he pushed her down the stairs to her death. Owen then flushed the thong down the toilet, causing the rattling in the pipes.

Annie's ability to be seen and heard by normal people depends on her state of mind, although supernatural creatures such as werewolves, vampires and other ghosts can always see her. Annie also seems to be able to teleport short distances. When Annie discovers her cause of death, she becomes a poltergeist, which allows her to move objects without touching them and turn machines on. At first, it seems that she can't control these newly found abilities, which only activate in times of extreme emotional distress (along with her teleportation).

In Series One Episode 5, the Door to Death appears for Annie once she has resolved the issue that was keeping her on earth. But before she can pass through it, Mitchell is stabbed, and she decides to stay to help him. Because of this, she missed her chance to leave and has to stay on earth in her undead state. She can now hear dead people, teleport further distances, and has greater power with regards to her telekinesis, which she describes as "a whole, new skill set".

In Series 2, Annie is confronted once more with the 'Door to Death' but this time voices come from inside and through radio/TV sets, who tell her they need her there. When Annie, once again, fails to pass through the Door (she escapes, aided by George), she can no longer be seen or heard by anybody but vampires, werewolves and other ghosts. However, she demonstrates a superior strength of will when dealing with a stage psychic who had lost his gift after a stage accident in Episode 6; although he had been unable to hear ghosts since the accident, he heard Annie, speculating that it was her strength of will that allowed him to hear her, with his gift being reawakened by contact with her. Annie was even able to see and say goodbye to her mother during her time with the psychic, folding a paper rose for her mother like she had used to do as a girl after seeing the method explained on a Blue Peter sketch.

John Mitchell

John Mitchell
Being Human character
First appearance	Pilot
Created by	Toby Whithouse
Portrayed by	Aidan Turner Guy Flanagan (Pilot)
In-universe information
Nickname	Mitchell
Gender	Male
Occupation	Orderly

John Mitchell (Aidan Turner) is a quiet, calm vampire who works as a hospital porter. He often wears dark clothing, rings and fingerless gloves. Irish by birth, he was originally bitten by Herrick during the First World War when he stumbled upon him and several other vampires who were picking through piles of bodies for anyone living to feed on. Mitchell agrees to become a vampire in exchange for Herrick leaving the rest of his men alone. In his early years as a vampire, Mitchell was quite a hero within the vampire community, who still circulate stories of his exploits amongst themselves. These seem to be a cause of great guilt for Mitchell who asks Herrick in Series One Episode 5 to stop the retelling of the stories, as he would prefer to be forgotten. Like other vampires, Mitchell has enhanced strength and sense of smell, and his eyes turn completely dark when he has blood lust or when he wills it; though it appears that he is slightly weaker when he abstains from drinking blood, he can survive without it. His image can't be captured on film and he has no reflection in mirrors.

Mitchell has himself admitted that he is over 100 years old. Although he can survive daylight, his eyes are overly-sensitive to natural light, prompting him often to wear sunglasses outside in the daytime. Mitchell has attempted several times to abstain from drinking blood (one attempt was a New Year resolution for 2000, with the aid of a fellow vampire called Carl). At this time, Mitchell showed an extreme addiction to blood, as well as heightened aggression, lack of control and extreme panic due to blood withdrawal

After 'converting' Lauren into a vampire (as covered in both the pilot episode and Series One Episode 1), Mitchell, infuriated at himself, decided to give up the blood and to attempt 'being Human' once more. He looks out for George, his werewolf friend, particularly around the full moon when George transforms. At several points, he has faced a conflict of emotions as he debates whether to 'convert' people dying around him to prevent their deaths. In the 1960s, Herrick gave Mitchell the opportunity to kill a young girl that they had lured into their car. Mitchell showed guilt and anger at the easiness of the kill and lets her go. He told Herrick that she had escaped, prompting the suspicious Herrick to say that he would keep a closer eye on Mitchell.

In episode 3 of series 2 Mitchell has become the new "king" of the vampire group in Bristol, hiding evidence of their feedings, recreating their human front and intending to wean them off blood, although his activities are hampered by such problems as Ivan- his oldest apparent 'recruit'- being unable to completely forsake blood after so long, forcing him to allow Ivan to feed in secret while maintaining his public front. After the deaths of his vampire group by an explosion at the funeral parlour, subsequently receiving confirmation that they have been betrayed by the coroner despite a deal he had made, Mitchell realises that he has wasted his time trying to hide his bloodlust and goes on a frenzy with Daisy, the now-widow of Ivan. Paying a last visit to George and Annie, he briefly seems to return to normal when warning George to stay away from cities in future before returning to his more arrogant, blood-crazed ways, only for a confrontation with a priest while searching for Lucy to both remind him that George saw him as a good man when he was injured by Herrick and reveal Lucy's connection to the organisation that seeks to 'cure' George and Annie.

George Sands

George Sands
Being Human character
First appearance	Pilot
Created by	Toby Whithouse
Portrayed by	Russell Tovey
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Orderly Language teacher
Religion	Jewish

George Sands (Russell Tovey) is less socially adept than Mitchell, despite having an IQ of 156 and being able to speak French, German, Italian, Spanish and Croatian. He became a werewolf when on a holiday to Scotland he went out for a walk with an American tourist, getting lost prior to being attacked by a werewolf who kills the tourist and scratches George, who survived when the rescue services found him. It is later revealed that the werewolf who attacked him is a man called Tully, who later came looking for him in search of companionship.

George resents being a werewolf to the extent that he is essentially in denial about his condition, often referring to it as 'that thing that happens to me once a month'. He sees his wolf side as an entirely different entity, never using 'I' or 'me' to describe it, only ever 'it'.

After becoming a werewolf, George left his family, his job and his fiancée, afraid of hurting them. He works alongside Mitchell as a porter in the local hospital, unable to hold down a more permanent job due to his monthly transformations, which are extremely painful. George is also Jewish and wears a Star of David pendant. The pendant is able to hold back one or two vampires, but in greater numbers it becomes less effective; Mitchell is apparently immune to it due to the personal connection between him and George. It was mentioned in the pilot, however, that George is a lapsed Jew as he believes the faith frowns upon someone turning into a werewolf.

George attempted to find new ways of coping with his 'condition' in Series Two while trying to take action to have a normal life despite his time as a werewolf, such as caging himself and taking tranquilisers before transforming, but this apparently only made the wolf angrier, resulting in uncontrollable swearing and a more brutal mentality in his human form, as though the wolf was trying to 'get out' in revenge for being 'chained'. Matters became even worse when he accompanied Sarah, his new girlfriend, to her daughter Molly's Parents' Evening, only to nearly transform at the school because he was unaware that the clocks had gone back; although he managed to maintain control of himself long enough to get back to the flat and be locked in his cage by Annie, Molly's subsequent terror after seeing him mid-transformation prompted George to look into a cure for his condition once again.

Supporting characters

Series 1

Nina Pickering (Sinead Keenan) is a senior staff nurse at the hospital in which Mitchell and George work, with a fiery and strong manner that can be intimidating. She initially views George as a bumbling, arrogant fool, but falls for him later after seeing his more caring side with the patients. When they start going out, Nina reveals burn scarring over a large portion of her stomach. While Nina and George eventually fall in love, George struggles with having another person in his life he can potentially hurt and tries to distance himself several times. However, their fates become entwined permanently in the series 1 finale, when George inadvertently scratches Nina during a transformation, passing the werewolf curse onto her as well. She and George go through tough times during the first episode in season 2, which concludes with Nina revealing her scratch marks to George and that she is now a werewolf as well, during an argument. In episode 2 of the second series, Nina and George try to make things work, but Nina leaves George upon discovering that he helped a vampire who killed his own lover escape the country, subsequently being contacted by the mysterious Kemp and participating in research for a werewolf 'cure' (Unaware that Kemp's experiment with a hyperbaric chamber would have killed her if it weren't for the intervention of Professor Lucy Jaggat).

William Herrick ( Jason Watkins) was a socially powerful vampire, who "recruited" Mitchell during World War I. In the first series, he is the leader of a Final Solution-style movement in which the human population of the world would either be turned into vampires or farmed for blood. To blend in with the human population, he worked as a police sergeant, and his vampire coven operated under the auspices of a funeral parlour. His cold, calculating personality was a stark contrast to Mitchell's compassionate character, and he often found Mitchell's struggle to control his bloodlust and to blend in with humanity both amusing and offensive. Before Herrick was able to fully execute his plans, however, George tricked him into agreeing to a showdown with Mitchell. In actuality, George managed to get Herrick alone with him in a small room during a full moon. George then transformed into his werewolf form (in which he was far physically stronger than a vampire) and killed Herrick by decapitating him. He appeared in a flashback in Series Two during a visit he and Mitchell made to London in 1969, during which he revealed that there is a similar system in London to the one which exists in Bristol, but he doesn't get along with the head vampire in London- the vampire's identity was never named- because he killed the vampire's mother under unrevealed circumstances.

Lauren (Annabel Scholey) was a vampire turned by Mitchell in the pilot episode, who once worked as a nurse at the hospital. Abandoned by Mitchell after being turned, Herrick took her under his wing, and while she resented what Mitchell has done to her, she also revelled in the vampire culture. Mitchell attempted unsuccessfully to convince her to give up drinking blood, but she aided Mitchell and his friends in escaping the vampire headquarters. Once safe, she pleads with Mitchell to kill her with a stake through the heart, which Mitchell does reluctantly.

Owen (Gregg Chillin) was the landlord of the property occupied by the three housemates, and Annie's ex-fiancée. He was also the man who killed Annie by pushing her down the stairs after an argument. After the murder, Owen immediately turned to his new girlfriend, Janey, whom Owen had been having an affair with during his relationship with Annie. After an unsuccessful attempt to haunt Owen and Janey- during which he attempted to mock her for her 'pathetic' hanging around-, Annie later confronted him with George and Mitchell, revealing their true nature and telling Owen a secret about what happens upon someone's death. This secret, which was unheard by the viewer, drove Owen mad with fear and compelled him to confess his crime to the police so that he can be kept safe from 'them'. Owen is currently incarcerated in an asylum, although his information allowed Kemp to identify Mitchell, George and Annie as their true natures .

Janey (Sama Goldie) was Owen's girlfriend and fiancée after Annie was murdered. She owns a nearby tanning salon, and Annie often seethed at her "orange" appearance along with her shallow and somewhat dense personality. After discovering how she had died, Annie attempted to warn Janey of Owen's violent side, but was thwarted when Owen discovered the two of them and dismissed Annie's presence as a figment of Janey's guilty conscience (for their affair while Annie was still alive).

Seth (Dylan Brown) was Herrick's primary henchman. He and Mitchell were rivals in the first series, as Seth was the one who was caught beating up George on the night that he and Mitchell met. Seth was seen as more impulsive and sarcastic than Herrick, although he did fall in line when the situation called for it. In episode 5 of the first series, he was killed by Lauren as Mitchell and his friends try to escape the vampire compound.

Josie (Clare Higgins old Josie, Charlene McKenna young Josie) was a former girlfriend of Mitchell's during the 1960s. Though diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, she resisted Mitchell's attempts to recruit her for Herrick's movement and warned him of Herrick's plans, later sacrificing herself to give Mitchell her blood so that he could heal after an attack from Herrick. Her orignal meeting with Mitchell was revealed in a flashback in Series 2, where she helped to shelter Mitchell when he tried to escape the police after he and Herrick killed several girls in a London flat.

Bernie (Mykola Allen) was a schoolboy who lived in the neighbourhood. After Mitchell scared away a group of kids who were bullying Bernie, the two became friends, and Mitchell became something of a father figure to Bernie. Unfortunately, a turn of events involving a vampire porn/snuff film DVD caused both Mitchell and George to be accused of pædophilia by Bernie's mother, Fleur, and for the two of them to be ostracised and persecuted by the neighbourhood. This blew up into a riot during which Bernie was hit by a car and rendered comatose. With Fleur's consent and knowledge, Mitchell turned Bernie into a vampire to save his life, but was wracked with guilt about condemning the boy to the life of a vampire. Both Bernie and Fleur have moved away and their whereabouts are unknown.

Tully (Dean Lennox Kelly) is a werewolf who encountered George during Series One and offered to mentor him through his condition. He is much more comfortable with being a werewolf than George, and a combination of his "seize-the-day" outlook and clever advice on handling the condition won George's trust (and, to a degree, hero-worship). However, George pushed Tully away when he discovered that Tully was the werewolf originally responsible for George's own condition, and was only trying to befriend George to combat his own loneliness. Following his rejection by George, Tully left the area and his current whereabouts are unknown.

Gilbert (Alex Price) is a ghost who George and Mitchell introduce Annie to in Series One. Having died in the 1980's, he attempts to help Annie resolve her death. However, this leads to Annie's discovery of the circumstances of her death. Eventually, he discovers his own reason for being a ghost: he needed to learn to love, as he learns to love Annie. His door appears, and he smiles as he walks through it, seeing a pale, bluish welcoming light emanating from it. Gilbert would either have a cigarette tucked behind his ear, or he would be smoking it. He also enjoyed 1980's music, which he listened to on his portable cassette player, and he even makes a mix tape for Annie.

Series 2

Ivan (Paul Rhys) is a 237-year-old vampire who (together with his consort Daisy) travels the world as a war tourist. It is this pursuit that has brought him to Bristol to witness the aftermath of William Herrick's death. He made his debut on the show in the first episode of Series 2. Ivan is jaded by his long existence as a vampire, and has displayed a detached curiosity about human feelings, having lost his own almost entirely, he is also known to have a dark sense of humor. Although he agreed to serve as the 'poster-boy' for Mitchell's 'anti-blood' group, he has admitted that he cannot forsake his centuries of 'servitude' to the hunger, forcing Mitchell to allow him to feed in private in order to maintain his image for the group. In episode 6 of series 2 Ivan is apparently killed when the vampires' base is blown up, but he manages to save Mitchell's life by shielding him from the brunt of the explosion.

Daisy (Amy Manson) is Ivan's consort. In a prequel to Series 2 placed by the BBC on YouTube entitled Ivan & Daisy, she persuaded Ivan to take her to Bristol and indulge their appetite for visiting hot-spots by witnessing the aftermath of William Herrick's death. An additional (and secret) motive for their trip to Bristol was so that she could visit and murder her ageing daughter. Daisy seduced George in episode 1 of Series 2 and their paths have continued to cross. George, in turn, persuaded her not to murder her daughter by re-awaking Daisy's human feelings and sense of guilt over her (which Daisy referred to as "the last thread" keeping her attached to her former life). She returns in episode 7 of series 2, distraught over the death of Ivan. She accompanies Mitchell in trying to find out the instigator behind the explosion that killed Ivan and numerous other vampires. When Mitchell discovers that Lucy, his lover from previous episodes, was involved, the two vampires go on a feeding frenzy on a railway train, savaging an entire carriage. The two are then seen in bed together, covered in blood.

Sykes (Bryan Dick) is an experienced ghost from World War Two who teaches ghosts' skills to Annie to allow her to thwart the Gatekeepers. Having been a ghost for 60 years, Sykes has developed his powers extensively, being able to read auras, read minds and show greater control over technology than Annie. Sykes is a ghost due to his reluctance to meet his ex-comrades in the afterlife, who he fears will punish him due to failing them and causing their deaths.

Lloyd (credited as simply Technician in the second series) (Mark Fleishmann) is a technician working for the mysterious organisation that seeks to study and experiment on supernaturals. He also runs the Centre for the Study of Supernatural Activity (or CenSSA) website which forms part of a viral campaign for Series 2. It is not altogether clear whether CenSSA and the mysterious organisation he works for on the show are one and the same. On the website in a video posted on Monday 18 January 2010 he refers to his colleagues in the mysterious organisation as "the Bible boys downstairs".

Kemp (Donald Sumpter) is a member of the secretive organisation pursuing supernaturals in Series 2. He is Lloyd's superior though not the organisation's leader. He is a religious zealot who appears to have his own agenda as regards supernaturals, whom he thinks should be removed from society.Following Professor Jaggat's instructions, Kemp allows Mitchell, George and Annie to be left alone simply to study the consequences of the three 'types' interacting with each other on a long-term basis. Although he claimed to want to help a werewolf develop a cure for his 'condition' by putting him in a hyperbaric chamber to cancel out the pressure caused by the moon, when the treatment began to prove dangerous to the werewolf Kemp allowed it to continue, and implies that he has seen similar 'accidents' in his time. In a flashback it was revealed that Kemp was a reverend whose wife and young daughter were killed by a trio of vampires, which is what motivates his mission. Even to this day he still carries the blood soaked Bible he used to defend himself on the night he discovered what became of his family. He is clearly defined by his prejudices, believing that werewolves are possession by a demonic force rather than an 'infection'. He has also commented (on one occasion) that he believes Mitchell "seduced" George to explain their friendship, rather than believing that Mitchell could genuinely form a platonic friendship with another being.

Professor Lucy Jaggat (Lyndsey Marshal) is a chief scientist working for the mysterious organisation pursuing supernatural entities in Series 2. Professor Jaggat is first mentioned by Kemp in the final episode of the first series, and is constantly referred to by both Kemp and Lloyd in the first two episodes of the second series. At the end of episode 3 Professor Jaggat is revealed to be Lucy, a doctor who has recently moved to Bristol and who has been forging a close relationship with Mitchell since episode 1 of Series 2. Despite Kemp's own prejudices against the supernatural, Lucy appears to be more willing to treat them as humans, believing Mitchell's claims that he is trying to go clean from blood- although he initially didn't explicitly reveal his vampire status to her, simply saying that he is trying to get past something- and normalising the pressure in the hyperbaric chamber when Nina is inside to save her life. When Mitchell finally revealed his true identity to her, the two actually slept together. Lucy's subsequent guilt about the liason drove her to contact Kemp and reveal the location of a vampire stronghold, allowing Kemp to kill over thirty vampires in a bomb. Her betrayal left Mitchell disgusted with humanity, and sent him on a bloody rampage.

External links

• Full cast and crew of Being Human - full cast at IMDb