BBC acquires Mayfair Witches, based on Anne Rice's acclaimed trilogy

Despite being one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, Alexandra Daddario has not yet been the lead in her own movie or TV series.

However, the 37-year-old New Yorker finally gets the chance to shine in Mayfair Witches, the second AMC drama (after Interview With The Vampire) to be set in Anne Rice’s ‘Immortal Universe’.

Following her breakthrough role in the Percy Jackson film series, Daddario appeared in movies Hall Pass, Texas Chainsaw 3D, San Andreas, Baywatch and We Summon the Darkness.

She has also guest-starred in TV series White Collar, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, True Detective, New Girl and American Horror Story: Hotel.

However, it wasn’t until 2021 that the actress, who made her TV debut aged 15 in daytime soap All My Children, received critical acclaim.

Daddario was cast as conflicted newlywed Rachel in the first season of The White Lotus, and her performance earned her an Emmy nomination.

Since then, fans have been eagerly awaiting what would be next for Daddario, and when the opportunity to lead the cast of Mayfair Witches came up, she grabbed it with both hands.

“I’m fascinated by Anne Rice even though I hadn’t read any of her work before booking the show,” she explained to The AV Club.

“I wanted the opportunity to dive into who she was and why she wrote these stories. I had also never been the lead of my own TV show, which felt cool.”

Daddario plays Dr Ronan Fielding, an intuitive paediatric neurosurgeon in San Francisco who discovers that she is the unlikely heir to a family of witches.

As she grapples with her newfound supernatural powers, Ronan must also contend with a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations.

“Rowan isn’t exactly the friendliest at times, but there’s a reason,” Daddario says.

“It’s because she’s struggling and compartmentalising so much. I tried to approach her as the mess she is, and how the world reacts to who she is.

“I thought it was well-written because she faced tough struggles even before finding out the truth about her family.”

The eight-part series begins tonight as Rowan learns that her adoptive mother Elena’s (Erica Gimpel) cancer has returned.

When Rowan’s chief surgeon refuses to help her get Elena into a clinical trial, she envisions the arteries inside of his head, and he collapses.

Elena quietly makes a call to the Talamasca (a secret society) for help, and agent Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) soon arrives, reassuring Elena that ‘the man’ remains in New Orleans.

Then, over in New Orleans, Dr Vernon Lamb (Billy Slaughter) secretively withholds Thorazine from a catatonic Deirdre Mayfair (Annabeth Gish) so he can give his new patient a proper psychiatric exam.

Elena later dies, and the entity Lasher (Jack Huston), bound to Deirdre, appears to Rowan.

Flashing back to the past, we see a young Deirdre guarded closely by her stern aunt Carlotta (Beth Grant), with Mayfair patriarch Cortland (Harry Hamlin) hiring a young man to seduce her.

She becomes pregnant and is saved from suicide by ‘the man’, aka Lasher.

After Deirdre gives birth, Carlotta hands baby Rowan over to her niece, Elena, with strict instructions to disappear with the child and never return…

Mayfair Witches received decent reviews on its release in the States earlier this year.

It will be interesting to see if its main star and her colleagues can cast a spell on viewers on this side of the Pond.