With their new show, Eternal Law, Pharoah and Graham don’t have the legacy of Life On Mars to directly follow, and while quieter, it allows them to get their new production off to a steadier start. It’s not bereft of elements of their earlier work, with a case of the week sat in the middle of, in this instance, fantasy elements. But the tone and feel is a lot gentler, even if the case itself isn’t. The show is set around the city of York, and director Adrian Shergold certainly makes as much of the city as he can. Furthermore, the performances are roundly good. Inevitably, characters are some way from being fleshed out, but it’s an engaging company that’s been put together here. At its best, Eternal Law is breezy, quite witty, and while a good deal softer in feel than Pharoah and Graham’s preview work, it’s a genial way to spend the best part of an hour. It never grips you by the collar, perhaps, but then it’s not really that kind of show. At least, not yet. The problem, though, is that there’s not enough room to comfortably squeeze everything in. Here’s an opening episode that could have used the extra ten minutes that it might have got had it not required the ad breaks. As it stands, by the time the twist ending to the case was presented, it lacked some of the impact you might have hoped for, arguably because there wasn’t that much meat to it in the first place. Furthermore, it doesn’t really leave you with a compelling hook to come back for more. I quite enjoyed Eternal Law, but it’s not a start for the show that’s instantly led plenty of crumbs leading me to the same time next week. It’s a modest beginning, in that sense. Which hopefully, the second episode will do. We’ve got glimpses of Tobias Menzies’ antagonist here, and the base establishing work is now in place. The challenge for Pharoah and Graham is now to take their base concept and see just what they can do with it. They’ve got fine heritage in this area, and that – combined with this solid, if unspectacular opening episode – suggests it might be worth keeping an eye on Eternal Law.
