Newton’s Law

Television ABC
1

##abc goes back to the Bar for new drama Newton’s Law

ABC is thrilled to announce that production is underway in Melbourne on an exciting new eight-part drama series Newton’s Law.

Developed from an original concept by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, the team behind the hugely successful Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries series and the heart-warming The Gods of Wheat Street, Newton’s Law centers around Josephine Newton, a suburban solicitor with an over-developed sense of responsibility who attempts to return to her briefly glorious stint at the Bar.

When Josephine’s low-flying solicitor’s practice is incinerated by a disgruntled client, she is persuaded by her old uni’ friend and not-so-secret admirer, Lewis Hughes, to trade the benefits of her brilliant mind for a berth in the lofty glamour of Knox Chambers. With her office destroyed, her marriage collapsing and motherhood fast losing its charm, Josephine decides it’s time she took her own aspirations off the back burner and resumed her barrister’s robes.

If only it were that easy to leave her old life behind!

Newton’s Law promises to be the Upstairs, Downstairs of legal dramas. Fiona and Deb say, “We’re very happy to bring another strong female protagonist to the screen, this time in modern dress, with a modern woman’s dilemma of trying to do too much for too many!”

ABC Director of Television Richard Finlayson says “Thanks to the ongoing support of Screen Australia as well as the ABC’s partnership with Film Victoria on the Victorian Drama and Comedy Initative, we are pleased to be able to commission another outstanding drama from Every Cloud Productions. Our audience is in for a treat."

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason says “We’re excited about getting into Josephine’s world on Newton’s Law — it promises to be funny, complex and engaging. It is a delight to work on a new great idea from such strong creative team and Screen Australia is proud to support this great new drama.”

Newton’s Law will commence filming in Melbourne later in the year.

Production Credits: An Every Cloud Production. Created by Deb Cox & Fiona Eagger. Produced by Fiona Eagger , Deb Cox & Anna Molyneaux. Executive Producers Fiona Eagger & Deb Cox. ABC Executive Producers Brett Sleigh & Alastair McKinnon. In association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

2

So they’ll have three legal dramas on the ABC with Rake and Janet King.

1 Like
3

And a pun for a title doesn’t fill me with confidence.

1 Like
4

According to News Corp, the drama starts filming in Melbourne tomorrow (Monday) to be broadcast next year. Claudia Karvan plays Josephine Newton, while the cast also includes Brett Tucker, Miranda Tapsell, Toby Schmitz, Andrew McFarlane and Georgina Naidu.

5

Stellar cast to rule ABC’s new drama Newton’s Law

Starring an outstanding lineup of Australian talent, ABC is thrilled to announce that filming has started this week in Melbourne on the eight-part drama series Newton’s Law.

One of Australia’s most celebrated actors Claudia Karvan takes charge as Josephine Newton and is joined by Toby Schmitz (Black Sails), Georgina Naidu (Wentworth, The Time of Our Lives), Sean Keenan (Glitch), Brett Tucker (McLeod’s Daughters) and Miranda Tapsell (The Sapphires) with Jane Hall, Freya Stafford, Andrew McFarlane, Ming-Zhu Huii, Will Ewing, Grant Piro and newcomers Ella Newton and Makwaya Musudi, rounding out this impressive cast.

Newton’s Law centers around Josephine Newton, a suburban solicitor with an over-developed sense of responsibility who attempts to return to her briefly glorious stint at the Bar.

When Josephine’s low-flying solicitor’s practice is incinerated by a disgruntled client, she is persuaded by her old uni’ friend and not-so-secret admirer, Lewis Hughes, to trade the benefits of her brilliant mind for a berth in the lofty glamour of Knox Chambers. With her office destroyed, her marriage collapsing and motherhood fast losing its charm, Josephine decides it’s time to take her own aspirations off the back burner and resume her barrister’s robes.

If only it were that easy to leave her old life behind!

Newton’s Law is the brain child of Every Cloud Productions’, Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger, the team that bought Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries to the screen.

The series will film on location and in studio over the next 12 weeks and will screen on ABC next year.

6

:roll_eyes:

7

##Newton’s Law

Newton’s Law centers around Josephine Newton, a suburban solicitor with an over-developed sense of responsibility who attempts to return to her briefly glorious stint at the Bar. When Josephine’s low-flying solicitor’s practice is incinerated by a disgruntled client, she is persuaded by her old uni friend and admirer, Lewis Hughes, to trade the benefits of her brilliant mind for the lofty glamour of Knox Chambers. With her office destroyed, her marriage collapsing and motherhood fast losing its charm, Josephine decides it’s time to take her own aspirations off the back burner and resume her barrister’s robes. If only it were that easy to leave her old life behind!

One of Australia’s most celebrated actors, Claudia Karvan takes charge as Josephine Newton and is joined by Toby Schmitz (Black Sails), Georgina Naidu (Wentworth, The Time of Our Lives), Sean Keenan (Glitch), Brett Tucker (McLeod’s Daughters) and Miranda Tapsell (The Sapphires), with Jane Hall, Freya Stafford, Andrew McFarlane, Ming-Zhu Huii, Will Ewing, Grant Piro and newcomers Ella Newton and Makwaya Musudi, rounding out this impressive cast.

Production credits: An Every Cloud Production. Created by Deb Cox & Fiona Eagger. Produced by Fiona Eagger, Deb Cox and Anna Molyneaux. Executive Producers Fiona Eagger, Deb Cox. ABC Executive Producers Brett Sleigh, Alastair McKinnon. In association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

Runs for: Eight x 1 hr episodes on ABC TV and iview

Latest info from 2017 upfronts

8

Promo shown during the New Year’s Eve coverage tonight and it actually looked good. Starts Thursday 9 February 2017.

1 Like
9

Agreed! Very keen for this!

10

Confirmed for 8.30pm on Thursdays.

1 Like
11
12

I don’t know about this show, I am going to give it a shot though. The problem I find with law shows that focus on both the caess and on the personal lives, it tends to drag on and becomes stale (look at Crownies) but the sequel to that Janet King was so much better! However I am going to give this a go though, it does look good judging by the preview. :stuck_out_tongue:

13

To me 8.30 Thursday doesn’t seem like a premium time for an ABC new drama that has been given so much promotion.

If you look at their schedule they have a BBC drama on Sunday night and a documentary on Tuesday, both nights that historically have had more viewers.

http://forums.mediaspy.org/t/abc-main-channel-programs-and-schedules/105/237?u=tv.cynic

14

Every time they tried to launch a big Aussie drama on a Sunday night they were being thwarted by Nine or Seven (or both) when they launched their own Aussie dramas on the same night, They’ve had more success on Thursday nights where the other networks haven’t had dramas.

ABC pretty much owns Thursday and Friday nights with Aussie drama.

15

ABC drams like Janet King and Jack Irish that were already established did OK on Thursdays last year but new dramas have failed. But of course ABC doesn’t care about ratings :slight_smile:

16

It started off a bit all over the place and then settled down. It’s a big cast. I don’t know how they’re all going to get screen time.

17

I forgot it was on. Is it worth catching up?

18

In a word, no. It’s not bad but it’s completely unoriginal having been done a 100 times before.

19

I felt like the start of the show was a bit over the top and all over the place but then it settled down.

I’ll reserve judgement until I see where it goes from here. I think it has potential but it might suffer from having one main character and lots of supporting characters, who are in three different compartments of her life and don’t interact with each other.

20

I’d call it a lightweight. There isn’t any stand out quality or element that comes to mind to recommend. The ensemble cast is a puzzle and most end up with such small parts going forward in the series, you wonder why they were included. The writing of the legal stories is pretty ordinary as well and if some people are to be believed fairly inaccurate, though no surprise there. Another strange decision was the choice of soundtrack - sounded like some 60s or 70s sitcom. Having said all that, all the characters are likeable (which could be a criticism) and its pretty easy to watch; noting too thought provoking :slight_smile: