Tom McNair

Thomas "Tom" McNair[1] is a fictional werewolf in the comedy-drama TV series Being Human, portrayed by Michael Socha.

McNair has told Tom that he was born a werewolf and that his mother had been killed by vampires.

Tom grows up with McNair outside society and the two of them see their mission in killing vampires.

[2] The 20-year-old werewolf Tom comes with his vampire-hunting dad McNair, to the house of Mitchell, Annie, George and Nina.

The devil, who appears as a guest in the hotel, tries to egg the friends on, to argue with each other because he feeds on the conflict between vampires and werewolves.

[10] The situation escalates when Tom finds out that Hal drinks the blood of his love interest Natasha, who is later killed by the devil.

[16] According to Michael Socha Tom sees Alex as part of his family and someone he would always go back to.

[8] According to Michael Socha Tom trusted his adopted father completely and listened to his rules.

[5] When the creators introduced Tom as a recurring character, they were already suspecting, that Russell Tovey (George Sands) would leave the series at some point.

Being Human was a show with a low budget and people responsible for other, bigger productions would notice the actors.

When Tovey actually left the show the production team decided that Tom should be one of the main characters in the new series, taking over Russell's role.

It helped that the dynamic between Socha, Crichlow (Annie Sawyer) and Molony (Hal Yorke) was good.

[21] Creator Toby Whithouse said that Tom has a "kind of brutality and physicality" that the previous werewolf character of George never had.

[20] After growing up in the woods with his only company being his father McNair, Tom is desperate to meet other people and wants to get some new friends.

[27] Mark Oakley from Den of Geek thinks that Michael Socha’s Tom "consistently delights".

The pair of Socha and Damien Molony (Hal) riff well together, delivering the comic interludes as well as the serious drama.

According to him it proved "the original Being Human flatmate template was durable and, better still, restored the early special brand of tender humour".

[30] Caroline Preece from Den of Geek thinks that Tom’s recurring appearances in the third series were a highlight.

“The image of him cradling McNair’s body and reading his last wishes was truly heartbreaking” and she understands why the producers wanted to keep the character.