Matthew turns to an old friend for help in dealing with his cravings for Diana, but the advice he receives isn’t necessarily what he wants to hear. Meanwhile, Diana finds herself under the scrutiny of Peter Knox, a powerful Witch who is determined to get hold of Ashmol 782 at any cost. Can she trust anyone anymore?

It’s difficult to ignore some of the parallels between this and the Twilight saga in terms of how each treats vampires and the established lore surrounding them, keeping bits that suit and discarding others to taste. Nonetheless, where Meyer’s central relationship revolved around an ordinary teenage girl and her vampire/werewolf love triangle, this show at least gives us a heroine who is more than the equal of the creatures around her.

I mentioned pacing in episode one and that remains slow and very deliberate here. There are a few action scenes, and a welcome appearance from the ever-excellent Trevor Eve, but there’s still very much a sense of groundwork being laid here that will make more sense down the line. Nowhere is this more true than in the opening, where we meet another vampire – this time in Venice – who has some sort of link to Matthew which will presumably reveal itself as things progress.

Elsewhere, we meet Matthew’s good friend Hamish, a demon with some considerable temporal influence. The show reveals to us through their interaction the very unusual nature of a friendship between these two different species, but more than that it provides us with some much-needed perspective on Matthew himself. For now at least, it seems fairly certain where Clairmont will stand in the conflict to come, though cleverly the show leaves us with just enough doubt on that score that it’s not settled yet.

Meanwhile back in Oxford, Diana meets up with Peter Knox and his chosen enforcer, Satu. What these interactions reveal to us is that Peter wants the missing Ashmol for his own reasons, and that he isn’t much bothered how he has to get it. Interestingly, it also transpires that he knows more about Diana and her family than she might have thought. Both Peter and Satu also quickly come to realise that despite her protestations to the contrary, Diana is quite a powerful witch indeed. Not only does it seem no coincidence that she was the one able to retrieve a manuscript thought lost to the ages, but now it would appear that she may end up being more than a match for most of her peers. Good job too, seeing as she seems to be rapidly running out of old friends and making odd choices with her new ones.

Overall, it’s still got that odd, Merchant Ivory-with-a-bit-of-fantasy feel to it. All big establishing landscape shots, quietly spoken, intense conversations which are about nothing much and everything all at the same time and a not-inconsiderable amount of sexual tension bubbling under the surface. Whether it can deliver on the things it appears to be setting up will determine how good this actually turns out to be.

Verdict: It’s an oddity to be sure – not apparently aimed at the genre crowd per se, but with enough fantasy to it that it isn’t for non-genre fans either. It’s a fascinating hybrid that needs to be careful it doesn’t overplay its calm and steady pacing lest it lose the interest of its audience before too long. 7/10

Greg D. Smith