It’s set in quirky small-town America and features brooding teenage vampires and a girl torn between her heart’s desire and her brain’s natural caution. So far, so familiar, but while ITV’s new teen drama, The Vampire Diaries, might seem to be little more than Twilight: The TV series, in reality it’s a different sort of beast entirely.

Described by People magazine as the “perfect middle ground” for “fans seeking something darker than Twilight but less graphic than True Blood”, the show, with its good-looking young cast and intriguing willingness to kill off major characters, was one of the surprise hits on US TV last year. But does it really offer anything new?