Author and film critic Kim Newman talks to Virginie S&#233lavy about Johnny Alucard, the latest and fourth instalment in his Anno Dracula series, which charts an alternative history of Dracula from 1888 to 1991, weaving in historical and fictional characters from Queen Victoria to Francis Ford Coppola.

Anno Dracula was set in a Victorian England ruled by vampires after Dracula successfully invaded Britain and married Queen Victoria. Its sequel, The Bloody Red Baron, took place during World War I. In the third volume, Dracula Cha Cha Cha, Dracula got married in 1950s Rome while the latest episode, Johnny Alucard, sees the story move from Transylvania to America between 1976 and 1991.

In the podcast, Kim Newman discusses the rules behind the Anno Dracula series, the vampire as dominant cultural icon, Dracula and Heart of Darkness, vampirism and celebrity, Andy Warhol and Orson Welles.