Being Human is a British supernatural comedy-drama television series created and written by Toby Whithouse and first broadcast on BBC Three in 2009.

The pilot episode starred Andrea Riseborough as Annie Sawyer (a ghost), Russell Tovey as George Sands (a werewolf), and Guy Flanagan as John Mitchell (a vampire) – all of whom are sharing accommodation and attempting as well as they can to live a "normal" life and blend in with the ordinary humans around them, striving to fit in more.

In the fourth series, the ensemble was joined by Michael Socha as Tom McNair (a werewolf) and Damien Molony as Hal Yorke (a vampire).

[4][5] On 13 March 2011, series creator Toby Whithouse announced that Turner had left the show and that new characters would be introduced.

Both are attempting to reject their nature as supernatural predators – George by strictly managing his transformations and their effect on others, Mitchell by abstaining from blood-drinking.

Despite a long history of antipathy between the werewolf and vampire races, Mitchell and George have formed a deep friendship, they have low-profile, low-status jobs as hospital porters and live as housemates.

As supernatural beings, George and Mitchell can see, touch and communicate with Annie, who is delighted to have their company and becomes the third member of the surrogate family.

Annie's challenge is to deal with her new existence as a ghost (including the isolation and loneliness which results from it) and to discover the reason why she has remained on Earth instead of passing over to the afterlife.

The trio are also subject to the growing attentions of a mysterious organisation (possibly called the Centre for the Study of Supernatural Activity, or CenSSA) led by the scientist Dr Jaggatt and the priest-administrator Kemp.

They set up house in a former bed-and-breakfast hotel and attempt to resume their "normal" lives, despite the overhang of the results of the Series 2 climax, including Mitchell having briefly snapped and murdered twenty people on a train in the Box Tunnel, in Wiltshire.

Aidan Turner left the show at the end of the third series, which also marked the final appearance of Sinead Keenan as Nina.

In the first episode George dies while rescuing Eve, leaving her in the custody of Tom (who moves into Honolulu Heights) and Annie.

Cutler reveals Alex's dead body drained of blood as revenge for Hal murdering his wife in similar fashion in 1950.

To save the world, Annie blows up Eve and the Old Ones, completing her unfinished business, and "passes over" as she is no longer an Earth-bound spirit.

[16] On 17 January 2013, the series synopsis was released, explaining that Alex would be adjusting to life as a ghost with Tom while Hal tries to keep his bloodlust in check, and they decide to take up jobs at the Barry Grand Hotel.

The three must deal with Mr. Rook, a government agent whose job is to keep the truth about supernatural beings from the public, and a pensioner named Captain Hatch (Phil Davis) who is secretly a vessel for the Devil.

In October 2011, Netflix announced it had obtained rights to stream episodes of Being Human via its home video service in the United States and Canada.

[19] Creator Toby Whithouse was approached by production company Touchpaper Television to develop a drama series about a group of friends who buy a house together.

The journalist Narin Bahar of the Reading Chronicle started an online petition to lobby BBC Three commissioning editors to greenlight a full series, which was signed by over 3,000 people.

Windsor Terrace, Totterdown, Bristol, was the location of Mitchell, Annie, and George's home and the pub shown in the pilot.

[6][28] The filmmakers returned to Barry Island to film the fourth series in late July 2011, where they continued to use local man Gary Rowe's house as the group's bed-and-breakfast base of operations.

[33] Brian McIver, writing for the Daily Record felt the show lacked sex appeal and that the plot was boring, concluding: "so what?

Stephen Armstrong in The Guardian gave the show a warm review, noting that its primary appeal was not supernatural or horror.

"[37] David Belcher writing in the Glasgow Herald was effusive, however, calling the series "Easily the sole good programme on BBC3...

The Miami Herald's Glenn Garvin praised the show's balance of humour and pathos: "What it is darkly funny, deeply affecting and utterly cockeyed, a work that celebrates life by dwelling on death, love by abiding loneliness.

Addiction is the obvious comparison, and Whithouse makes it nicely – the relationship between John and Lauren (Annabel Scholey), the woman he hopes is his last victim, plays like classic junkie love.

"[43] Reviewing the Series 3 Blu-ray release, the Wichita Falls Times-Record-News noted, "So many movies and TV programmes will suggest how evil people can be and how much characters can suffer.

"[44] Melinda Houston, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, applauded the way the show took the common television theme of the "disenfranchised... suddenly retaliat[ing]" and inverted it.

[51][52] Being Human garnered "some of the largest audiences in the network's history" when it debuted on BBC America in 2009, and again during its second series run in 2010.

[29] The network also revealed that Becoming Human's finale, which aired on BBC Three rather than online, received more than 1.5 million viewers on television and iPlayer.