Unmade Movies: Hammer Horror's The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula

Dracula travels to 1930s India in this celebrated unproduced Hammer Horror script, directed by Mark Gatiss

The annals of movie history are full of lost treasures - spectacular scripts from world-renowned writers that could have been classics, had they only been made. Now, for the first time, some of these forgotten gems have been brought to life, fully realised as vivid, cinematic radio productions. Scripted by major 20th Century writers, including Harold Pinter, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Potter, they star a host of A-list actors and feature richly evocative, atmospheric soundtracks.

In The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula, one of seven 'unmade movies' available on audio, it is 1934, and young Englishwoman Penny is travelling by train across India in search of her missing sister. En route, she meets sibling artistes Prem and Lakshmi, who have been hired by a Maharajah and his wife, the Rani, to entertain their aristocratic European guest. But evil lurks in the hidden caverns beneath the ancient palace, where the acolytes of a fiendish blood cult await their next human sacrifice...

The intended follow-up to Scars of Dracula, this exotic, blood-drenched tale was nearly filmed on location in India in the early '70s, but financing problems meant it was dropped in favour of Dracula, AD 1972. Rescued from Hammer's vaults, it has been resurrected by Mark Gatiss, and is the first new Hammer Horror Dracula production in 43 years. It stars Anna Madeley (All Creatures Great and Small) as Penny, with Nikesh Patel (Indian Summers) as Prem, Ayesha Dharker (The Indian Doctor) as Lakshmi and Meera Syal (Goodness Gracious Me) as the Rani. Lewis MacLeod (Dead Ringers) channels Christopher Lee as the iconic Count, and Michael Sheen (Staged) narrates. Get ready for a terrifying, edge-of-your-seat encounter as the Prince of Darkness rises from his grave once more...

Production credits
Written by Anthony Hinds
Directed by Mark Gatiss
Produced by Laurence Bowen and Peter Ettedgui
Original music by Blair Mowat
Sound design: Wilfredo Acosta
A Dancing Ledge production for BBC Radio 4

Cast
Narrator - Michael Sheen
Penny - Anna Madeley
Prem - Nikesh Patel
Lakshmi - Ayesha Dharker
Babu - Kulvinder Ghir
The Rani/Mrs Mukherjee - Meera Syal
Count Dracula - Lewis MacLeod
Maharajah/Inspector - Raj Ghatak
Lucy - Natalie Kimmerling
Evil Face - Sagar Arya

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 28 October 2017

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