Matthew Graham Interview

This interview was originally published on BestBritishTV.com in 2012

Matthew Graham is a British television writer best known as the co-creator of Life on Mars, and Ashes to Ashes. In 2011 he began work on a new series for ITV -- Eternal Law.

What was the inspiration for “Eternal Law”?

“Ashley and I got together to have a chat about new ideas while we were filming the second season of Ashes to Ashes. I had just watched the Emeric Pressbuger film It's a Matter of Life and Death starring David Niven and Ash and I started talking about it. It is a lovely, warm, metaphysical romance but it has a lot of humor in it and we began to talk about ways to make a television series with those kinds of elements and characters in it.

We explored the notion of having angels sent to Earth for pragmatic reasons. Heaven would be a place full of rules and regulations that you never actually see but that you get to hear about. Within this hierarchical realm, God would even be referred to as Mr Mountjoy rather than God and he has sent hundreds of thousands of angels to Earth. The angels walk among us disguised as doctors, lawyers, policemen, Big Issue sellers and people working in other professions. The angels are here to guide us during moments of crisis.

We continued to explore this idea and eventually we came up with the idea of having a world-weary angel (Zak) who had performed several tours of duty on Earth. He is a bit cynical and grumpy but he likes certain things that we have on Earth such as cheese, fine wine and the occasional cigar. The idea of putting this guy alongside a young, idealistic newcomer to Earth (Tom) made us chuckle and we began to develop the show from there.”

So do Zak and Tom have a master and apprentice type of relationship?

“Yes they have the archetypal TV relationship between the experienced cynic and his young sidekick. We consciously tried to create that dynamic. As was the case with Life on Mars, we tried to put together two people with opposing personality types but we added a twist.”

Zak has a love interest called Hannah who is a human. How do you go about writing a love story that involves both a human and an angel?

“Our angels are very human. You do get to glimpse their wings at certain moments but for the most part the angels look like us. The housekeeper Mrs Sheringham acts as their guide and she makes it very clear that Mr Mountjoy has imposed certain rules about fraternizing with humans. You cannot hurt them, you cannot have sex with them and you cannot fall in love with them. Although these things are not allowed, it is possible for an angel to do these things. We learn very early on that Zak fell in love with a beautiful trainee lawyer called Hannah during a previous tour of duty. They had a full blown sexual relationship and he seriously considered going to Mr Mountjoy and asking if he could give up his wings and just live on Earth like a human. Before he had a chance to do that, Mr Mountjoy called him back from Earth and gave him a final warning not to get involved with her.

The show begins several years later and Zak has returned to Earth in a new body. He sees Hannah and recognizes her but she doesn't recognize him although she does feel strongly drawn towards him. Zak can't believe that Mr Mountjoy has put him in this situation where he is faced with temptation. Mr Mountjoy has made it clear that he won't tolerate any more angel misbehavior. Zak is faced with a dilemma because he wants to be with Hannah but if he acts on his feelings then it is entirely possible that God will pull the plug on the human race and destroy the Earth.”

To make matters worse for Zak, Hannah is working for a dark angel. Tell me about that.

“After the first episode, Hannah goes to work for Richard Pembroke who is one of the original rebel angels who sided with Lucifer during the fall. We don't mention Lucifer in the show but we do make it clear that at one point in time Mr Mountjoy dealt with a major rebellion and that he cast out the angels who were involved in that. The inference is that if there are good angels walking the Earth then there must also be dark angels who are determined to oppress humanity.”

Richard is also a lawyer so do we see the good versus evil dynamic coming into play during courtroom battles?

“We see them face each other in court on a couple of occasions. In the first episode, a disturbed man goes on trial after going on a shooting spree and killing several people. Tom the new guy, assumes that he and Zak will be working on the side of the prosecution. In fact, Zak and Tom are assigned to the man's defense team while Richard is given the easier job of prosecuting this seemingly evil man. So we play around with the roles a bit whenever they meet in court.

Tobias Menzies does a splendid job as Richard. He is very devilish but he is also handsome, urbane and charming so it is difficult to hate him. He really does want Hannah and Zak to get together because that would be wonderful mischief. Hannah just sees him as being a really nice guy who wants her and Zak to be an item.”

When you wrote Life on Mars, you had a plan for a story arc that eventually extended across that show and Ashes to Ashes. Will Eternal Law follow a similar format or will it be more in the mold of a legal drama with a series of one-off stories?

“We don't have a masterplan that extends beyond the first season of the show but we do have a lot of ideas that we would like to explore. The first season ends with a massive cliffhanger so we are hoping that it has a second season!

There is a law story each week although the amount of court room drama that we see varies from week to week. It is much more an angel show than a law show. There is an ongoing mystery that revolves around a mysterious gift that was left on Zak's doorstep. It appears to have come from Mr Mountjoy and this object has huge historical significance for human beings but it also serves as a warning to Zak that he should not mess around.

We are fairly low key with the angels in so far as we don't have a lot of scenes with angels flying around and things like that. If we find that the viewers have an appetite for more of the angel action then we would love to explore that more in a second season of the show.”

Sometimes the TV networks are accused of being conservative but do you think that you and Ashley Pharoah have a bit more creative freedom due to the success of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes?

“Yes I do. When we approached ITV with Eternal Law - which was a bit of whacky idea- they didn't dismiss it out of hand because they know that we have the potential to pull something like this off. Having said that, I don't think Eternal Law is as “out there” as Life on Mars but it is pretty unconventional and ITV thought long and hard about it. It took them about a year before they decided to ask us to write it and I think there were good reasons for that. There were aspects of the show that they found confusing and they forced us to really look at it and see if we could actually make it work. So I do think that people expect us to come up with whacky ideas but they also expect us to underpin those ideas with firm foundations and good characters.”