York’s angel delights (From The Northern Echo)

York’s angel delights

5:56pm Wednesday 4th January 2012 in Features By Steve Pratt

Steve Pratt ventures to the angelic world of Eternal Law, being filmed near York Minster, and talks to writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham and actress Orla Brady.

LATE afternoon outside York Minster and the cameras are rolling on a new ITV drama series being made in the city. The wind is blowing a gale and actress Orla Brady has to make a determined effort to hang on to a young child she’s shielding from the wind as two men in suits make what appear to be threatening gestures.

Like the actors, the Minster and the rest of the city were auditioned for Eternal Law, the new series from the creators of Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes The idea was developed without the makers knowing where the story – centred around two angels working as lawyers – would be set. Six or seven cities and towns were under consideration until creators and writers Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham thought of the North and York. “I did a show called Where the Heart Is up here so there was that connection. Then we came up to explore and really fell in love with the city. It was just beautiful and fitted our show,” says Pharoah, who created another of ITV’s top series Wild At Heart.

“Episode one, which I wrote without ever having been to York, has a shoot-out in a market and we wanted a mix of old and new buildings. We wanted it to feel contemporary but do it in this ancient place. We were strolling around the city and, of course, came across a street market with the Minster towering above it. “We were supposed to be going further north to Durham, but never got back on the train. York was like someone had built an enormous set for us.”

THE premise of Eternal Law is high concept, which means it’s not the usual runof- the-mill cops or medical drama, but mixes genres and styles calling for a tricky balance between humour and drama, darkness and light.

“We were coming to the end of the Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes cycle and thought what shall we do? And we started making ourselves laugh with the idea of a grumpy angel, a cynical angel. It seemed a very funny and amusing premise,” says Graham.

“And I’d been watching that David Niven film, A Matter of Life and Death, one of my favourite movies. I said to Ash what I love about it is that Heaven is run like a court, very ordered and in black-and-white, and Earth is all a bit messy.

From that, we started thinking if angels came to earth perhaps they’d come as lawyers and that’s inherently funny as well. So it just sprung from that really.” Pharoah knows they never make it easy for themselves. They learnt the hard way from their series about archaeologists Bonekickers, which was “a bit of a disaster for us”, as he puts it.

“Because the premise was completely mad, completely outrageous, it was very hard to root it in a reality that people could understand. Why Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes work is partly because you always have that hook or coathanger of a police show to hang it on. In the end you get what’s at stake – there are baddies to catch, crimes to solve.

“You know what people are doing, even though they are doing it in a different way. This show is the same sort of principle. We all understand the concept that there’s a man in the dock saying I’m innocent of the crime you’re accusing me of and our heroes are going to prove he’s innocent. The fun comes because they’re angels and have a slightly different agenda.”

The pair work closely together at the ideas stage, formulating stories and characters, then write episodes separately before getting together again to give each other notes.

The series was filmed entirely in and around York at the beginning of the year. The disused hospital in the shadow of the Minster, in the city centre, was not only the production base, but used as various sets, from lawyers office to hospital to police station.

“The joy of filming in a small city is you can walk everywhere,” says Graham. “I was up here a few weeks ago plotting for episode six and I thought I need an impressive and unusual location.

I suddenly thought of the Railway Museum, went inside and it was fantastic. You can recce very quickly here.

“I was kicking my heels one day, and went to the York Art Museum where there’s this fantastic painting of the troops going to the front in the First World War. That stayed with me, and episode five is about soldiers so I thought why not shoot in the gallery and use that painting?”

“Sometimes when you do walking and talking scenes they can be very dull, but in this city they’re not. If you’re walking through the Shambles it’s interesting, something people who live in York may be used to, but to the national audience is fascinating. We’ve been using the city walls, it’s fantastic to have our characters walking along them.”

THE film-makers found the locals very welcoming, perhaps because there hasn’t been a series shot entirely in the city before.

They were also blessed with good weather.

“The first few weeks of working here was rather like being in Los Angeles,” says Graham. “Every day in Los Angeles you get up and never have to think if the sun’s going to be shining because it always is. For the first few weeks in York, every day the sun was shining.”

The cast is a mix of familiar and fresh faces.

Samuel West and newcomer Ukweli Roach play Zak and Tom, angels newly-arrived in York to work as lawyers.

Mistresses star Orla Brady features as the enigmatic Mrs Sheringham, who keeps them in line, while Hattie Morahan’s barrister tempts Zak to stray from the right path and Tobias Menzies is the dark angel threatening the two newcomers.

The writers have learnt not to second guess critics or audiences. They’ve enjoyed writing and making Eternal Law but know it’s a gamble.

“But these days everything is a gamble. You can make the most down-the-line cop show and not know if anyone is going to watch it. We like to push the envelope, offer people new things and see if they buy into it,” they say.

But do the writers believe in angels? “Good question,” they reply. “It’s interesting how many people have something in their life they attribute to a guardian angel. I like the idea, I like the concept, I’m prepared to buy into it,” says Graham.

The yearning for angels interests Pharoah.

“Every show ends with the two male angels on the Minster looking down on York and thinking what the hell was that about. People drive them mad with their lies, cheating and fighting but they love their resilience.”

• Eternal Law begins on ITV1 on Thursday at 9pm