George Sands
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George Sands is a fictional werewolf in the
comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
television series ''Being Human'', portrayed by
Russell Tovey Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama '' Being Human'', Rudge in both the stage and film versions of ''The Histo ...
. The male lead for the duration of the show's first three series appeared in 24 episodes of the drama, as well as in three Being Human novels.


Television series


Prequel

In the prequel’s narrative George is on holiday in Scotland with his fiancé Julia. One day George decides to go for a walk, while Julia stays at the hotel. Outside he meets Andy, who joins him. The pair is outside until it is dark, and they suddenly hear a wolf howling. The wolf turns out to be a werewolf, who attacks George and Andy. Andy is killed by the werewolf while George survives. However, George is scratched by the werewolf which turns him into a werewolf too.


Pilot

After George is infected with the werewolf curse he flees from home and leaves his fiancée Julia without telling her why. He moves to Bristol and starts to work in a hospital as an attendant. After never hearing from George again his family and fiancée Julia believe George is dead. In Bristol George hides that he is a werewolf. He wants to learn how to manage his monthly transformations, so he decides to move into a new home with his friend
Mitchell Mitchell may refer to: People *Mitchell (surname) *Mitchell (given name) Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate * Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst * Mitchell, Northern Territo ...
, a vampire who is trying to stay clean from blood. They soon find a nice house, but as soon as they move into their new home they figure out that the ghost
Annie Annie may refer to: People and fictional characters * Annie (given name), a given name and a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Annie (actress) (born 1975), Indian actress * Annie (singer) (born 1977), Norwegian singer The ...
is already living in the house. At first George doesn’t like Annie and wants her gone, but they get closer together as time passes. During his work at the hospital George meets his former fiancée Julia again, who is a patient there. When George hears that Julia’s new fiancé Peter beats her, George threatens to kill him, but is stopped by Annie. Julia finally figures out that George is a werewolf, seeing him transform in front of her, but isn’t able to cope with this and leaves him. Meanwhile the three housemates George, Annie and Mitchell have grown closer.


Series 1

While living with Mitchell and Annie, George tries to manage being a werewolf. When the werewolf Tully arrives, George is happy to find someone offering to help him manage his condition. However, George soon learns that Tully is the werewolf who infected him. This discovery leads to Tully and George parting company. At the hospital George meets a nurse named
Nina Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq * Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, ...
and a romantic relationship starts between them. Through all of this, Mitchell’s evil infector Herrick interferes in the trio’s lives. In the end, George transforms into a werewolf and kills Herrick. While he transforms, he also scratches Nina.


Series 2

The killing of Herrick unleashes a side of George that he had never shown before. He is looking for a fight and gets involved with a couple of new vampires. George doesn’t see that his girlfriend Nina is feeling bad, a result of him scratching her when transforming into a werewolf. Instead of taking care of Nina, George flirts with the vampire Daisy. When Nina finally reveals her condition to him this brings George back to reality. Nina finally leaves George and he has a hard time getting over this. George gets a new job teaching at a language school where he meets Sam, and falls in love with her. George plans to move into a new flat with Sam and her daughter Molly, but those plans are put aside when Nina returns. Nina tells George, Mitchell and Annie about an organisation called CenSSA. She tells George that this organisation helps him to get rid of his condition once and for all. George is sceptical about this and decides not to join Nina. Instead, he goes to a parents meeting at school, along with Sam. There he starts transforming into a werewolf and manages only to get away within the last second. This makes George realise that being a werewolf is endangering the people in his life, and he decides to go to the CenSSA organisation along with Annie and Nina to finally get rid of his condition. Finally George, Annie and Nina figure out that Kemp, CenSSA's leader, can’t keep what he has promised and that a lot of werewolves are killed during his experiments. For Annie however it is already to late. She is sent to hell by Kemp. Later George, Mitchell and Nina move into a new home in Barry.


Series 3

After a long break up Nina and George are together again. They start a new life in a house in Barry. Mitchell is living in the same house and saves Annie from Purgatory, who moves into the friends house. Nina becomes pregnant. For the first time since becoming a werewolf George sees his parents, who thought he was dead. George visits them along with Nina, realises that they have broken up and brings them back together again. Meanwhile Mitchell has killed again. He asks George to kill him and put an end to his life. In the end George kills his friend Mitchell because of mercy.


Series 4

George is devastated his love Nina has been beaten to death by vampires, only shortly after she has been given birth to their daughter Eve. George spends most of the next month sitting on guard beside his daughter's crib, determined to protect her but emotionally shattered. To save his daughter from the vampires George partially transforms into a werewolf during a non full moon night. He does this by tricking his body into thinking that there is a full moon, granting him the strength needed to kill the vampires who threaten Eve. This saves his daughter but George also dies during the process, as the partial transformation gave him the enhanced strength without giving him the enhanced healing he needed to cope with the damage he was inflicting on himself, his last words being to ask Annie and fellow werewolf Tom MacNair to act as Eve's guardians, which they do. At the end of the series George is joined by his friends Annie, Mitchell, Nina and baby Eve in the afterlife. A reunion scene with the friends is never shown on television.


Relationships


Nina Pickering

Nina and George are very close to each other. After becoming werewolves they both support each other a lot managing their condition and staying close to humanity. Nina has a calming influence of George, even as a werewolf. Nina is able to rip through the barrier that George has built up because of his own lack of confidence and the insecurity about himself.


John Mitchell

George Sands and John Mitchell have a deep friendship. They support each other to control their supernatural urges.


Annie Sawyer

When George meets Annie for the first time he doesn’t like her and wants her to leave. However, the house mates get closer to each other very soon and start to develop a friendship.


Casting

After the Being Human pilot, almost all the rôles were recast. Russell Tovey was the only regular cast member that stayed. He later told in an interview that the George that he played alongside
Guy Flanagan Guy Nicholas Flanagan (born 1980) is an English actor, best known for portraying John Mitchell in the pilot episode of '' Being Human''. Background Born in New Longton, Lancashire, Flanagan attended Cardinal Newman College, and went on to tra ...
(Mitchell - Pilot) and
Andrea Riseborough Andrea Louise Riseborough (born 20 November 1981) is an English actress and producer. She made her film debut with a small part in ''Venus'' (2006), and has since appeared in more prominent roles in '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008), '' Never Let Me Go ...
(Annie - Pilot) was different from the George that he played alongside
Lenora Crichlow Lenora Isabella Crichlow (born 4 January 1985) is a British actress. She became known for her starring roles as Maria "Sugar" Sweet in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Sugar Rush'', Annie Sawyer in the BBC Three supernatural drama series ' ...
and
Aidan Turner Aidan Turner (born 19 June 1983) is an Irish actor. He played the roles of Ross Poldark in the 2015–2019 BBC adaptation of ''The Poldark Novels'' by Winston Graham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti in ''Desperate Romantics'', Ruairí McGowan in '' Th ...
, as each actor would respond differently to the character.


Leaving the series

In November 2011 Tovey announced on Twitter that he would leave ''Being Human''. He later said that he would feel strange to film the series without Aidan Turner, who had announced his departure of the series a short time before Tovey. In 2016 at the
MCM London Comic Con The MCM London Comic Con (formerly known as the London Movies, Comics, and Media Expo and London MCM Expo) is a speculative fiction fan convention held in the London Borough of Newham twice yearly since 2002, usually on the last weekend in May ...
Russell Tovey said that he would like to film another one-off special of ''Being Human'' with his former co-stars
Aidan Turner Aidan Turner (born 19 June 1983) is an Irish actor. He played the roles of Ross Poldark in the 2015–2019 BBC adaptation of ''The Poldark Novels'' by Winston Graham, Dante Gabriel Rossetti in ''Desperate Romantics'', Ruairí McGowan in '' Th ...
and
Lenora Crichlow Lenora Isabella Crichlow (born 4 January 1985) is a British actress. She became known for her starring roles as Maria "Sugar" Sweet in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Sugar Rush'', Annie Sawyer in the BBC Three supernatural drama series ' ...
. He suggested that the special could take place in the after life.


Characterisation

Originally the BBC asked Whithouse to write a story about three college graduades buying a house together. In Whithouse's early ideas George was a man with anger management issues. He was very punctilious, old fashioned and romantic. George had his own travel agency. At his office there was a girl who was in love with him. However, George turned out to be a werewolf. George is born as George Sands Junior. He has an extraordinarily high IQ and is Jewish. George has a lot of self doubts and moral qualms. He struggles a lot with being a werewolf. Monica Germanà believes that he tries to separate his supernatural self from the human one, when he speaks about himself as a werewolf using the pronoun "he" instead of him. However, it is also demonstrated that this is not possible as George also shows some supernatural abilities, like enhanced smell, when he is not transformed. According to Deborah Mutch George is the most human of the three housemates. He becomes only monstrous once a month. Therefore, he "represents the moral center of the series".


Reception

''
Hollywood.com Hollywood.com is an entertainment news website covering popular culture topics including movies, television, music and celebrities. Hollywood.com is principally owned by Mitchell Rubenstein and Laurie S. Silvers, who previously founded Sci-Fi Ch ...
'' thinks that “Tovey manages to be nerdy and anal retentive but dead sexy.” as George. Brent Hartinger from ''
Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progra ...
'' feels that Russell Tovey’s George is a “very fussy, neurotic character, and he’s also extremely adorkable”. Matt Roush from ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' says that George is played touchingly by
Russell Tovey Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama '' Being Human'', Rudge in both the stage and film versions of ''The Histo ...
. In 2010 and 2012
Russell Tovey Russell George Tovey (born 14 November 1981) is an English actor. He is best known for playing the role of werewolf George Sands in the BBC's supernatural comedy-drama '' Being Human'', Rudge in both the stage and film versions of ''The Histo ...
was nominated as best actor for playing George Sands by the ''
SFX magazine ''SFX'' is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy. Its name is a reference to the abbreviated form of "special effects". Description ''SFX'' magazine is published every four weeks by Future plc and was founded in 19 ...
''.SFX Magazine (2010): SFX Sci-Fi Awards 2010. Edition: April 2010. Page:97-100SFX Magazine (2012): SFX Sci-Fi Awards 2012. Edition: April 2012. Page:93-97 In 2011 George was listed on place 33 of '' SFX's'' ''Top Sci-Fi Icons'' list, in front of such characters as
Hermione Granger Hermione Jean Granger ( ) is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. She first appears in the novel '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (1997), as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. After Harry and ...
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, Damon Salvatore,
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or
Gandalf Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is a Wizards (Middle-earth), wizard, one of the ''Istari'' order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of t ...
.Lewin, Russell: Mitchell. Tunnel vision, in: SFX, The Top Sci-Fi Icons (2011), P. 71 In 2011 Tovey won ''
SFX magazine ''SFX'' is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy. Its name is a reference to the abbreviated form of "special effects". Description ''SFX'' magazine is published every four weeks by Future plc and was founded in 19 ...
''’s ''Cult Hero'' award for playing George.SFX Magazine (2011): SFX Sci-Fi Awards 2011. Edition: April 2011. Page:93-97


See also

*
List of fictional werewolves This is a List of fictional werewolves who appear in works of literature, television, comics, films and legends. Literature Film Television Animation Comics Video games See also * Werewolf fiction References Further reading * * * ...


References


External links


George on the BBC Being Human website

George on the BBC America website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sands, George Fictional werewolves Television characters introduced in 2008 Fictional medical personnel Being Human (British TV series) characters Male characters in television Fictional English Jews