The cast is totally magic

Teresa Palmer (Hacksaw Ridge) takes the lead role, playing American academic Diana Bishop, while Matthew Goode – fresh from his splendid turn as Lord Snowdon in The Crown – plays Matthew Clairmont; just your average vampire, geneticist and Oxford University fellow. Plus, look out for Alex Kingston (Doctor Who), Owen Teale (Game Of Thrones) and Sherlock’s Louise Brealey and Lindsay Duncan.

It boasts an amazing creative team

Ashley Pharoah, co-creator of the classic time-travelling cop show Life On Mars, writes and executive produces, and there’s also a host of Doctor Who alumni on board, including writer Sarah Dollard, director Alice Troughton and executive producer Julie Gardner.

It’s got some wild twists and turns

Time travel plays a key role in the story and Harkness’ background as a historian of Elizabethan London is used to great effect. Also, the vampires can walk in daylight and don’t be surprised if a sentient house is thrown into the mix.

It’s helping to position Cardiff as the fantasy TV capital of the UK

While much of the series is set in Oxford, it was mostly filmed in South Wales. Production company Bad Wolf is following up A Discovery Of Witches with a TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s book trilogy His Dark Materials, so perhaps you’ll see more of Oxford by way of Cardiff in the near future!

While working on the novel, the author found a real-life spellbook 

Our heroine gets pulled into the world of witches after discovering a magical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, something that actually happened to author Deborah Harkness (well, the discovering the manuscript part). Harkness located a copy of the Book Of Soyga, a collection of incantations once owned by John Dee, mathmetician, occult philosopher and advisor to Elizabeth I. How’s that for inspiration?