His Dark Materials, episode 2 review: a story of wide-eyed wonder – with a touch of EastEnders

Phew, quite frankly. My overwhelming feeling about His Dark Materials (BBC One) was one of relief. It’s a risky business, making mega-budget screen adaptations of much-loved novels – witness the 2007 film flop – so the very fact that the BBC haven’t made a mess of Philip Pullman’s fantasy favourite is in itself something of a triumph.

The launch episode drew impressive overnight ratings of 7.2m yet there was mercifully little wailing of “sacrilege!” or fans mewling that their favourite book has been “ruined”. In this era of social media backlashes about pretty much anything, that’s no mean feat.

The second episode saw our orphan heroine Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) begin her new life in London with the glamorous yet unsettling Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson, who didn’t just steal scenes but carried them home and put them on her mantelpiece). The opulent art deco apartment, all gleaming marble and tasteful hotel trimmings, soon became a gilded cage.

At first, it appeared that film noir-ish femme fatale Mrs Coulter might become Lyra’s feminist mentor. “Look around you,” she whispered conspiratorially over lunch at The Arctic Institute. “How many women do you see? In every room, there are those who will want to belittle you but with my help, they won’t lay a scratch on you.”

Lyra was determined to find her missing friend Roger (the adorable Lewin Lloyd) but Mrs Coulter was more concerned with giving her a mini-me makeover. Gradually, it dawned on Lyra that her new guardian wasn’t all she seemed.

It was a sort of high-class EastEnders moment when Lyra learned of her true parentage. Remember in 2001 when Zoe Slater yelled at her big sister Kat, “You ain’t my muvver!” and Kat screamed back: “Yes I am!”? Cue doof-doof drums.  Well, here we got Phillip Pullman’s version.

In a flash of temper, Mrs Coulter let slip that the man Lyra thought was her uncle, explorer Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), was “a failure of a man and a failure of a father”. No soapy doof-doofs, just a heart-wrenching crumple of confused Lyra’s face.

By the time the credits rolled, Wilson had gone full Cruella De Vil, purring and snarling in furs. Lyra eventually learned that the child-snatching “Gobblers” worked for the General Oblation Board, a secret Magisterium-funded project led by (gasp!) Mrs Coulter herself.

In another surprise twist, Lord Boreal (a slightly charisma-free Ariyon Bakare) travelled from Lyra’s world into ours. He stepped through a shimmering portal and arrived in contemporary Oxford, where the windscreen of his car was covered in parking tickets. Such a dual existence clearly plays havoc with one’s admin.

The Gyptians continued their search for the missing children to no avail. It’s currently the Gyptian scenes that are letting his otherwise splendid drama down. These salt-of-the-earth canal-dwellers should be thrilling, fiery and propelling the action. Instead they’re undercooked and downright dull.

Still, it was all handsomely realised, with its steampunk technology and lavish sets, while the talking animal “daemons” were magically Disney-esque. The fact that baddies tended to be accompanied by snakes or insects, rather than cute fluffy creatures, added a fairytale flourish.

Not faultless, then, but a world away from the disaster it could have been. Full of wide-eyed wonder and urgent storytelling, this was textbook family entertainment for autumnal Sunday nights.