Ever since Bram Stoker penned his ever popular Gothic horror novel, Dracula has been one of the genre’s most enduring villains - his exploits terrifying generations of readers and cinema goers alike.

Traditionally, little is known about the vampire himself, an obscure figure who remains in the shadows, emerging only to suck the blood of his innocent victims and spread his curse of the undead.

But the latest adaptation of the legend now promises to shed new light on Count Dracula, the Transylvanian nobleman whose arrival at the north east port of Whitby sets off a train of grisly events.

Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the writers behind BBC One’s Sherlock, have promised to make Dracula “the hero of his own story” in their forthcoming TV adaptation of the novel.

In Stoker’s original novel, published in 1897, Dracula is only ever seen through the eyes of his victims of those trying to vanquish him.

Crucially, however, Moffat and Gariss intend to tell the story of the vampire from his own perspective.