Peggy thorpe bates biography of donald
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John Mortimer’s fictional barrister was—like his creator—a rogue redeemed by a fierce commitment to the presumption of innocence.
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Horace Rumpole deserves a place alongside Bertie Wooster, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, James Bond, and Father Brown as one of the best creations in all of British popular fiction. The fact that he began his career as a made-for-TV character rather than in the pages of a book, or even a magazine, seems to have worked against him. The brainchild of barrister-turned-writer John Mortimer, Rumpole first appeared on television on December 17th, , in a BBC anthology series called Play for Today.
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Mortimer was born years ago this month, and when Rumpole first appeared, he had already been earning a living as a writer since the s. He graduated with a law degree from Oxford in , but then
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Over the course of sju series, John Mortimer&#;s Rumpole of the Bailey fell to pieces in kraftfull fashion, as I&#;ll be documenting over the weeks ahead. Perhaps the real tragedy of that, apart from the illogical, badly-plotted and just plain dum stories that we&#;ll eventually get to, is that the kind of impression that leaves is of a decay that could have been averted bygd ending the series long before it did, becomes the overall impression, shunting aside the recollection of the series when it was good. Because, based on just the first episode alone, Rumpole wasn&#;t just good, it was very very good.
The episode has to stand as a scene-setter &#; inom can&#;t have been alone in April in not having experienced the original BBC play &#; but it chose, quite rightly, to concentrate on Horace Rumpole, and leave his surrounding cast of fellow Barristers in their Chambers as an impression, and not a particularly impressive one at that.
Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern, seizing with both
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Rumpole of the Bailey
British television drama series (–)
For the spinoffs, see Rumpole of the Bailey (book series), Rumpole of the Bailey (short story collection), and Rumpole of the Bailey (radio series).
| Rumpole of the Bailey | |
|---|---|
Caricature of Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole from the episode "Rumpole and the Younger Generation" | |
| Genre | Courtroom drama |
| Created by | John Mortimer |
| Starring | Leo McKern |
| Theme music composer | Joseph Horovitz |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 44 (list of episodes) |
| Running time | c. 50 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 17&#;December&#;&#;() |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 3 April &#;()&#;– 3 December &#;() |
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barristerJohn Mortimer. It starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, a middle-aged London barrister who defended a broad variety of cli