Bram Stoker has a lot to answer for. He didn't invent vampires, of course -- they'd been a staple of European folklore since the Middle Ages. But the Victorian Dubliner's 1897 novel Dracula popularised the idea of bloodsuckers as fictional characters to such an extent that they've remained a staple in books, films and television ever since. Surely, though, they have never been more in fashion than they are at the minute. And while Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight franchise might claim the credit for the current vampire craze, a lot of the ground work was done on television.

True Blood, which began on Channel 4 last week and begins on TG4 on 26 October, is the latest in a line of vampire-based TV dramas that stretches back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the daddy of the current trend. And in ways, the new show, which has been running on HBO in America since last year, is a perfect demonstration of why the vampire has proved such a perennial dramatic tool.

Created by Alan Ball, the man behind Six Feet Under, and based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood blends the conventions of vampire stories with the so-called 'southern gothic' tradition in much the same way as Anne Rice (Interview With The Vampire) did. If anything, however, the True Blood stories are more daring, and use the bloodsuckers as a kind of metaphor for race politics and even gay rights.

Set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the series revolves around one Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a waitress at the local bar who happens to be telepathic. In Bon Temps, however, that's no big deal, because the town is awash with shapeshifters, werewolves and vampires. In True Blood's alternate world, these supernatural creatures have always existed, but have only come to human attention in recent years. And it's the vampires, understandably, who are the main bone of contention.

After the vampires announced themselves to the world on television, the Japanese (who else?) developed a synthetic blood product that would sustain them and mean that they could live in peace among us. But not everyone was convinced by this concept, and while the likes of America and Sweden have given them a guarded welcome, other countries have repressed them violently. In Bon Temps, an uneasy truce has been reached: some of the vampires who have 'come out of the casket' are trying to integrate into mainstream society, but are viewed with deep suspicion by many humans.

Like all self-respecting American towns, Bon Temps has a serial killer, and while some locals are keen to blame the vampires, it's clear the killer is human. Much of True Blood's drama revolves around Sookie's relationship with Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a handsome, 150-year-old vampire with whom she falls in love. And when he kills another vampire in order to defend her, he is forced to 'turn' a young woman by biting her. It's clever stuff, well written, rather steamy and extremely inventive in terms of its storylines. After a slow start it's been a big prime-time hit in the US, and it will be interesting to see how it does here.

True Blood buys into the modern trend of portraying vampires as victims. This seismic shift in vampire lore, which can arguably be accredited to Anne Rice, opened up a whole new vista of dramatic possibility for the genre. In her very influential novel Interview With The Vampire, which was subsequently turned into a film by Francis Ford Coppola, she honed in on what could be seen as the twin nightmares of bloodlust and eternal life. And the theme of vampire as downtrodden outsider has been richly mined ever since.

If Anne Rice can be credited with this great switch, it was a master stroke. The classic vampires, such as the creeping beast in FW Murnau's terrifying silent film Nosferatu, were ominous predators without a single redeeming quality. And while Bram Stoker's Dracula character, as developed by Hollywood and later British studio Hammer, was a suave and sexually attractive charmer who enticed gullible females into his ancestral castle, he was still essentially a monster.

But after Interview with the Vampire, the whole emphasis seemed to change. Based on an underrated 1992 film, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) became a cult hit with a fanatical following during a six-year, seven-season run. And while its central character Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a 'Slayer' who battles against demons and vampires to stop her town of Sunnydale being engulfed by the nightmarish underworld of Hellmouth, the show's vampires are far from universally malevolent.

Some have hearts and a conscience, and in the second series Buffy becomes romantically involved with a vampire called Angel, an ambivalent character who, although prone to the odd killing spree, would ultimately redeem himself as the saviour of humanity and earn a series of his own (Angel).

The success of Buffy sparked a flurry of imitations. In the short-lived but quite clever series Moonlight (2007-2008), Alex O'Loughlin played a vampire with a heart who watches over a vulnerable female journalist and devotes his life to fighting crime. Women, children and innocent bystanders are off the menu, and he only bares the fangs to those who richly deserve it.

In the excellent and beautifully made Japanese animated series Hellsing (2001-2002), a very powerful 600-year-old vampire has sworn loyalty to a Papal-based organisation that hunts down murderous bloodsuckers. And in Blood Ties, a Canadian show based on Tanya Huff's Blood Books series, a Toronto-based female private investigator finds a guardian angel of sorts in a 480-year-old vampire called Henry Fitzroy, who happens to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

In The Vampire Diaries, a brand-new teenage series that launched to high ratings last month in America, a high school is the setting for a vampire encounter. A vulnerable 17-year-old called Elena, who's recently lost her parents in a car crash, finds herself drawn to a dashing and mysterious new student called Stefan. He seems a bit shifty, though, and after an unfortunate attack at a bonfire party, Elena discovers he's a vampire. However, he's a good one, and the series revolves around his battle with his elder brother, who sees no moral conflict in having the odd nip at a human neck.

While this might sound familiar to fans of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, in fairness The Vampire Diaries is based on a book series by LJ Smith that was written some years before Meyer put pen to paper. Meyer's books series, though, and the films they have inspired look set to be the most successful vampire franchise yet -- the next film, New Moon, will be released here in November.

Meyer blended the traditional power struggle of a high-school drama with a supernatural story, and her vampire family, the Cullens, are all-round good eggs who abstain from human blood and protect humankind from less benevolent night stalkers. But abstinence implies temptation, and the central dynamic of the Twilight stories is the romance between Bella and Edward Cullen, who yearns to suck the poor girl's blood. It makes for great drama, and it shows how much more potential exists in recasting the vampire as a lonely outsider with a bad conscience, rather than a mere bogeyman.

True Blood starts on 26 October, 11.25pm,TG4; currently airs on Wednesdays, C4,10pm

- Paul Whitington

Irish Independent