Vampire Origins – Mythical Beasts

Could the discovery of brutally impaled corpses in Eastern Europe shed light on the origins of the vampire myths?

The vampire is one of the most terrifying mythological monsters of all time, but the romantic vampire of modern fiction is very different to the horrible, undead creature our ancestors believed in. In Bulgaria, archaeologists excavate a graveyard where they find a skeleton that has been brutally impaled with an iron stake. Why did people here believe that the dead were rising from the grave? What did they see that convinced them that blood-sucking vampires existed? Science and archaeology is starting to reveal what really inspired the vampire stories and just how deep fear of these monsters ran.

For thousands of years, civilisations believed in mythical beasts – Dragons, Cyclops, Giants, Vampires and Sea Monsters. They still fascinate us today, but where did the stories of these fabled creatures come from? How much truth lies behind the legends, and what can these myths tell us about the medieval and ancient people that created in them? This series combines action-packed location filming and computer-generated animation, with experts in archaeology and palaeontology, to unearth the secrets behind some of the most famous and terrifying mythical beasts.