It is rare to be able to pinpoint the moment at which a cultural archetype was created; but at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, two came into being at once. In 1816, Lord Byron rented the expensive house for himself ; four young friends, escaping scandal in Britain, lived nearby. Frankenstein and The Vampyre (1 November) was a solid documentary recounting how two of the group created characters that between them launched a whole fictional genre.The scene at the villa, gently dramatised here, was reminiscent of the comparable goings-on at the Villa Nellcôte in Villefranche-sur-Mer in France, where the Rolling Stones gathered in 1971/72 to make Exile On Main Street. The little group in Switzerland were very like rock stars and their hangers-on, as several commentators here obse
06 November 2014, The Tablet
Lake of horrors
Frankenstein and The Vampyre BBC2
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