Here’s a previously unpublished entry for 1001 TV Series You Must Watch Before You Die for the series Wolfblood. Originally it was one of the publisher’s choices to be covered and I gladly leapt at the chance as I thought the show was great. They then changed their mind about including too many “kids’ TV shows” and dropped it after I’d written it. (Thankfully I got paid anyway, so I still win.)

Wolfblood (Drama, United Kingdom, 2012 – 2017)

A challenging teenage drama that puts many adult shows to shame.

Cast: Bobby Lockwood, Aimee Kelly, Leona Vaughan, Louisa Connolly-Burnham, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Angela Lonsdale
Original Broadcaster: UK, CBBC
Awards: Royal Television Society, Best Children’s Drama 2013; Children’s BAFTAs, Best Performer: Bobby Lockwood
For fans of: The Sarah Jane Adventures, Wizards vs Aliens

For most teenagers puberty is hard enough, but Maddy Smith has something else to contend with: her parents turn into wolves every full moon. So far she has kept them safe during each transformation, but now she is coming of age and experiencing the change herself. Into their secluded village comes troubled foster-teen Rhydian Morris, transferred to a new home in Stoneybridge after he, too, began “wolfing out”.

The BBC has a reputation for producing robust children’s drama, and Wolfblood is no exception. Created by the appropriately named Debbie Moon, it has a clear mythology: being a wolfblood – they never describe themselves as werewolves – is a family inheritance, not passed on by a bite. There are also competing packs: the tame wolves, who happily exist amongst humans, and the wild ones who resent domestication. Against that conflict Maddy and Rhydian must try to live normal lives and protect their secret, even from their friends.

Compared to many shows with supernatural themes, Wolfblood largely eschews effects, concentrating instead on very human, personal drama. The characters display more complexity than you might expect from a show aimed at a youth audience; indeed the teenagers are more effectively realized than they would be in most adult drama, walking that difficult line between being aspirational, yet still playing out the raw realities of childhood. The Northumbrian setting also gives the show a unique feel: it’s suitably rural, spooky and isolated, but also features voices and dialects not often seen on the small screen.

Unafraid to paint its heroes in an unsympathetic light, or give the nominal bad guys room for sympathy, Wolfblood is a children’s drama that adults should kill to sink their teeth into.

Classic Episode: The Mottled Poppy | Series 2 Episode 5.

Wolfblood meets Wolf Creek as a road trip leaves Maddy and her family, and her friends Tom and Shannon, needing help when their car breaks down. But the garage owner and his wife are wolfblood hunters quickly imprisoning the unsuspecting group. What is more shocking, however, is how quickly Shannon switches sides.