Blood Ties is a Canadian television series based on the Blood Books by Tanya Huff; the show was created by Peter Mohan. It is set in Toronto, Ontario, and features a 4-and-a-half century old vampire, Henry Fitzroy, assisting private investigator Vicki Nelson in dealing with crime committed via paranormal elements, a similar premise to an earlier series also set in Toronto, Forever Knight. It premiered in the United States on March 11, 2007, on Lifetime Television, and during fall of 2007 on City and Space in Canada. In May 2008, Lifetime declined to renew the series.

Plot

Blood Ties, set in Toronto, Ontario, centres on Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox), a former Toronto Police Service officer who left the force to become a private investigator when her eyesight begins to degenerate from retinopathia pigmentosa. Through her work she teams up with the 470-year-old vampire Henry Fitzroy, who happens to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. The mutual attraction between them is complicated by Vicki's relationship with former partner and lover Mike Celluci. In the beginning, he does not believe in the supernatural and thinks that Vicki is losing her mind along with her eyesight. Also in the picture is Vicki's assistant Coreen, who was hired because of her knowledge of the occult and to keep her quiet about Henry. Coreen is thoroughly enamored of both the occult and Henry, which can get her into trouble.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Guest stars

Characters

Episodes

Season 1 (2007)

Season 2 (2007)

International airings

The series has been bought by UK channel Living and started airing there on August 16, 2007. In 2008 the show commenced screening in Australia on the FOX8 channel. In Spain, it is broadcast by Calle 13 and started on November 22, 2007. In Latin America the series has started to run on AXN, but later changed to Animax the anime and SciFi Channel part of Sony Entertainment (as AXN). It is also broadcast in 2012 on French channel NRJ 12.

Reception

Common Sense Media rated the series 3 out of 5 stars.

Home media

Smoke and Mirrors

In April 2010, it was announced that The Fremantle Corporation and Kaleidoscope Entertainment are developing a new vampire series, Smoke & Mirrors, based on the "Smoke" book series by Canadian fantasy author Tanya Huff. Kaleidoscope in 2007 turned Huff's "Blood" book series into the Lifetime Television series Blood Ties, which also aired in Canada on Citytv and Space. Fremantle and Kaleidoscope are now shopping Smoke & Mirrors, starting at MIPTV, as a possible Canadian-European co-production. The urban fantasy series will see the return of Henry Fitzroy, the 474-year-old vampire, in a series of paranormal misadventures experienced on a fictional TV series shoot. The "Smoke" book series is a sequel to Huff's "Blood" book, in which the characters are Tony Foster (character replaced by Coreen in Blood Ties) and Henry Fitzroy, dedicated to solving mysteries and combating supernatural threats.