Production is underway on the fifth series of BBC3’s supernatural drama Being Human – and producers are already promising a major new villain and a “terrifying” storyline.

Blogging on the show’s official website, online exec Rebecca Denton said writer Toby Whithouse had completed the first episode of the new series, and had responded to fans’ entreaties for a new baddie.

“I can’t give anything away (of course) except to say the calls for a new villain have been answered,” said Denton.

She described the new series as “Bigger, better, bolder, braver and definitely more terrifying that anything that has come before,” adding that it promised “to deliver all the laughs and fun of season 4 but with a very definitely new and nasty, chilling edge”.

Series four ended in March with the departure of the last of the original main characters, Annie the ghost, played by Lenora Crichlow.

She will be replaced by recently introduced apparition Alex (Kate Bracken, pictured) who joins vampire Hal (Damien Molony) and werewolf Tom (Michael Socha) in the latest version of the ghost/vampire/werewolf house-share which has always been at the heart of Being Human.

Denton said further scripts for the new series were on the way, with shooting planned for the summer.