FILMING WRAPS ON MAJOR ITV DRAMA 'ETERNAL LAW' (21/07/2011)
A brand new television series due to air on ITV next year has just completed filming in the region. Eternal Law, created and written by Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham, focuses on angels Zak and Tom, sent to earth to help a community and try to understand the human condition. The six-part high concept drama from the makers of TV hits Spooks and Ashes to Ashes filmed over three months from April to July at a range of locations across North and West Yorkshire.
Screen Yorkshire worked with Kudos Film and Television and Monastic Productions to secure Eternal Law for Yorkshire, offering locations and logistical support further to facilitating initial recces last year. Screen Yorkshire's film friendly partners, City of York Council and Visit York, were also key in facilitating and supporting the production. Locations in the North East and South West were also considered, but securing Purey Cust Nuffield Hospital, empty since 2006, as the production base was a major coupe and helped ensure that the region was the front runner to host the television series.
Locations
Eternal Law filmed at a range of city centre locations in York, including Purey Cust Nuffield Hospital, St Helen's Square, St William's College, York Minster, Stonegate and alongside the River Ouse. The production also spanned a number of other locations across North and West Yorkshire, including: Leeds, Kirklees, Wakefield, Richmondshire, Selby.
Alison Jackson, executive producer of Eternal Law, talks about their decision to base the production in York:
"We first started talking about the project with (writers) Matthew and Ashley two years ago. Whenever they come to us with an idea we know it will have a sprinkling of magic and we needed to find a location that would match up to the script. We wanted to find a city that was a fresh view of contemporary Britain; big enough to give us all the different backdrops we needed, but which would also conjure the right atmosphere of magic and mystery. The city is going to look absolutely extraordinary on film and I hope it will give viewers a real sense of the geography of York.
Normally a location shoot is massive circus. Typically you're based in trailers beside a ring road and spend an awful lot of time ferrying actors back and forth from the set. In York we've been blessed, being able to walk to the various different locations is a real luxury.''
Synopsis
Eternal Law examines and explore the baffling human spirit as Zak and Tom, who are both lawyers working for a local legal firm, attempt to influence humans to do right by one another. However, things don't always go according to plan particularly when they come up against old adversary and dark angel, Richard Pembroke, who is determined they won't succeed in their challenge to lead the community to a more harmonious way of living. Life-affirming, warm and witty, Eternal Law is a highly original contemporary series, a unique blend of the intensely real and the magical. At moments of intense emotion the viewer might see a dramatic spread of angel wings as Tom and Zak go about the streets of York, but for the most part they appear just like everyone else.
Cast
Eternal Law stars Sam West as Zak Gist, Ukweli Roach as angel newcomer Tom Greening, Tobias Menzies, who played Brutus in the television series Rome, as dark angel Richard Pembroke, and Orla Brady, who most will recognise as Siobhan from Mistresses, along with Hattie Morahan, who starred in Sense and Sensibility and Lark Rise to Candleford.
Since its inception in 1992, Kudos Film and Television has become one of the UK's most successful and original producer of popular and award winning television drama. Productions include Spooks, Hustle, Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Law & Order:UK, Occupation and The Fixer. Pre-production for Eternal Law begins in November 2010 and shooting starts on 14 February 2011.
Monastic Productions is Matthew and Ashley's Production Company founded in 2006. Matthew and Ashley created and wrote the highly acclaimed and award winning Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, whilst Ashley also wrote and created Wild at Heart, which is in its 6th series for ITV.
Commissioned by ITV's Director of Drama Commissioning, Laura Mackie and Controller of Drama Commissioning Sally Haynes, Eternal Law is due for transmission on ITV in 2012.
