As set souvenirs go, Claes Bang's memento certainly takes the cake (or indeed the neck).

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The Dracula actor has revealed that he got to keep a copy of the vampire fangs used during filming, which will make quite the mantlepiece ornament.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Bang said: "I didn't get to keep them, but do you know what they did? The people that did them, they did a very nice little model of it that I could take home. So I've got that. It's the cast, they built it into something."

Bang added that the fangs weren't the comically oversized teeth we usually associate with vampires, but instead slightly bigger versions of his own teeth. He said: "The fangs are my teeth, enlarged a little bit. They took a print of my teeth and then just came back slightly bigger.

"They've done them quite like a carnivore. They're quite predator. They're not really lovely and long and white; they're not very nice-looking."

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Co-creator and co-writer Steven Moffat, best known for his work on Sherlock and Doctor Who, also noted how the choice of teeth showed a lot about Dracula's character:

"Our Dracula's fangs become most visible when he smiles. And that sort of sums up our Dracula. Because he does smile. He has quite interesting chats with people before he offs them. It's really taking on board the fact that Dracula, before he was vampired, was a highly accomplished, very educated prince.

He continued: "He was a man of great attainment and learning, according to the book. So he's lived 400 more years, he's pretty smart, and he's cultured. He's intelligent and he's learned. He's not going to just behave like a savage beast all the time.

"But sometimes, just when he gets a little whiff of blood, oh, the savage beast comes out, and I think that's what Claes does absolutely amazingly."

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Dracula begins on BBC One on Wednesday 1st January at 9pm

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