Bruce Wightman who has a bit part in this was a expert on Bram Stoker and founder of the Dracula Society.
The production was considered so prestigious by the BBC that it forced the cancellation of a Tom Baker era Doctor Who (1963) serial about vampires, which had been written by Terrance Dicks, because BBC executives feared the viewing public would regard the Doctor Who serial as a send-up. The serial was later made in 1980 as State of Decay: Part One (1980).
When first shown on British television in December 1977, the film was shown all in one evening lasting 155 minutes. When it was repeated (twice) in 1979, it was split into three episodes shown on consecutive nights. A repeat screening in 1993 was split into two episodes.
The film is notable for being extremely faithful to Bram Stoker's novel, although several liberties were taken, including: The characters of Quincy P. Morris and Arthur Holmwood are combined into a single character named Quincy P. Holmwood; Mina and Lucy are sisters in the film and friends in the novel; Dracula in the novel begins as an old man and becomes younger as he feeds on blood, and in the film this does not happen; Dracula is killed in the film by Van Helsing who drives a stake into his heart, while in the novel he is killed when Jonathan Harker cuts his throat with a knife and, at the same time, Quincey Morris thrusts a knife into his heart.
Before the production was permitted to be broadcast, the scene where Dracula's brides feed on the baby had to be trimmed.