LIKE ITV's recent The Jury and BBC2's current Murder series, The Law attempts to spin a fresh take on the all-too-familiar police series. So, we not only get a maverick cop and his young sidekick, the basis for many a cop show, but also go behind-the-scenes to see how the judicial system works.

We see how the Crown Prosecution Service shapes and forms the charges to be brought and how the barristers themselves get in on the act and have an input into what happens. The accused, quite honestly, is the least of anyone's worries and this pilot episode of The Law left the question of guilt unanswered as the final credits rolled.

World-weary detective Douglas Hodge, one of those over-worked souls carrying the weight of the world on his hunched shoulders, and bright new boy Joseph McFadden (or "baby sergeant" as he's affectionately known) investigate a case involving a corpse that's been stabbed nine times and thrown off the top of a tower block. Clearly the murderer was taking no chances that the victim would live.

The dead man is a doctor who appears to have been visiting his drug addict prostitute lover Anna. She's charged with his murder despite only the flimsiest of evidence. The case is borderline at best, according to Amita Dhiri's CPS woman. They need to find more evidence, she says.

The plot thickens when detectives discover that the doctor and his headmistress wife (the estimable Barbara Flynn) were swingers, who had sex sessions with other willing couples. "Not exactly Dr Finlay, was he?," observes one policeman. Hodge and McFadden aren't exactly Starsky and Hutch, either.

The former has an eye for a pretty woman. "I thought you were attached," says his partner after catching him ogling a girl. "No harm in looking," replies Hodge.

The action switched from police investigation to courtroom drama, presumably in the belief that combining two popular TV genres would result in twice as many viewers. Some might complain that both areas have to be skimped on to squeeze everything into a 90-minute slot.

Still, The Law is cast up to the hilt with a familiar face in nearly every role. Hodge's common accent is a bit wearing and how can we take McFadden seriously when he turns up to a bloody murder scene wearing a light-coloured suit? But if ITV wants to challenge BBC's soon-to-return Mersey Beat, this could be the series to do it.