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Rumpole Season 1 - 7 + Pilot - BBC Classic TV
The Charge
"A person who is sick of crime is sick of life!"—Horace Rumpole
Opening Statement
When author John Mortimer created his beloved character of Horace Rumpole
in 1975, it was meant to be a one-shot television appearance. Fortunately,
this was the beginning, not the end, of the rotund barrister's television
career. Distinguished actor Leo McKern (A Man for All Seasons), the perfect
physical embodiment of Mortimer's character, went on to star from 1978 to
1992 in the series Rumpole of the Bailey, which is now available once more
on DVD. A powerful influence on the television courtroom dramas that
followed, Rumpole of the Bailey is a unique combination of mystery, literate comedy,
and often poignant drama—both in and out of the courtroom.
Facts of the Case
Horace Rumpole is proud to be what he calls an "Old Bailey hack," earning
his bread and butter (and cheap red wine, of which he is fond) by serving
as defense counsel in the famous London criminal court. Rumpole's colleagues
don't altogether understand his enthusiasm for crime; suave head of chambers
Guthrie Featherstone (Peter Bowles, To the Manor Born) thinks that criminal
cases lower the standard of the law practice, and fussy Claude Erskine-Brown
(Julian Brown, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) much prefers
prosecution to taking the part of such low-lifes as safecrackers and
shoplifters. His strong-willed wife, Hilda—to whom Rumpole has privately
given the allusive sobriquet "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (Peggy Thorpe-Bates)
also badgers him to aspire to greater professional eminence and put such
undistinguished cases behind him. But Rumpole loves his work, not least
because it gives him a chance to speechify before juries, show off his
encyclopedic knowledge of literature, and tease judges (he likes to address
them as "old darling"). Of all his colleagues, only brisk young Phyllida
Trant (Patricia Hodge) seems to understand, and share, his enjoyment of his
work.
Even though he is approaching retirement age—a fact that his colleagues
bring to his attention with increasing frequency—and even though some of his
cases awaken bitterness and doubt about his chosen profession, Rumpole takes
so much satisfaction in what he does that it's almost impossible for him to
imagine giving it up. But when She Who Must Be Obeyed begins to conspire
with their son Nick to push Rumpole toward retirement, he may find himself
outmaneuvered.
The Evidence
Rumpole is probably one of the most beloved of twentieth-century British
literary and television creations, an immediately recognizable character we
love for both his talents and his flaws. There's something almost ~censored~
about him: his short, stout figure, dressed in rumpled disarray; the jowly
face that shows both kindness and shrewd intelligence; the characteristic
flourishes like his oft-present cigar and his tendency to declaim literary
quotations in round, resonant tones. His sense of humor is matched, even
superseded, by his sense of justice, even though he seems just as happy
unwinding with colleagues over a glass of cheap red plonk at Pommeroy's
wine bar as he does when cannily working a jury. His home life is less than
peaceful—he describes marriage warningly to a bachelor friend as "pleading
guilty for an indefinite sentence without parole"—and he misses his son
Nick (David Yelland), who moves to America early in the first season, so
his job, as much as others may look down on it, is all the more valuable
for the satisfaction it brings him. Rumpole is a figure of both comedy and
pathos, and we feel his triumphs and disappointments with him.
Season 1+ Pilot
No pass.
Season 2
Season 2 Mirror
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
That is the Complete Rumpole Collection
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