Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 14, 2011
I Swear...
Whatever happened to Horace?
Vic Fleming
Where is Horace Rumpole when you need him most?
The barrister whose cases and antics entertained me (and millions of others) on PBS’s “Mystery” series for many years is not on the airwaves in these parts anymore.
Horace was a man after the heart of any street lawyer.
For those who may not be familiar with the subject, Horace was the protagonist in “Rumpole of the Bailey,” a TV series written by British barrister John Mortimer, Q.C.
Q.C. stands for Queen’s Counsel, but Rumpole always referred to that title as “Queer Customer.”
Produced and aired by the BBC, the series ran from December 1975 to December 1992: 44, 50-minute episodes. You read that right, only 44 episodes!
It was rebroadcast on PBS in the USA, and I guess I watched it regularly in the ’80s and into the ’90s. Maybe only the ’80s. Forty-four episodes would make only three seasons of viewing in this country, no?
I now find myself toying with the notion of purchasing the “Complete Series Megaset” on DVD for just under $50.
I wonder if I’d take the time to watch them all again.
To see this larger-than-life advocate, played to perfection by Leo McKern, who loved being in the courtroom, who disdained the notion that he himself might ever become a Queer Customer or, worse yet, a “Circus Judge.”
To see him revel in the glory and honor of being “an Old Bailey Hack”; to hear him persuade a client to plead not guilty over said client’s objection, (“There is no piece of evidence more unreliable than a confession!” he held.)
To see him at his hangout, Pommeroys, a Fleet Street wine bar, smoking his cheap cheroots and drinking his choice of wine: “Cooking Claret,” “Chateau Thames Embankment,” or, perhaps, “Pommeroy’s Very Ordinary.”
To hear him refer to his wife Hilda, behind her back of course, as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” (I’ve lately learned this nickname was somehow derived from the novel “She” by H. Rider Haggard.)
How did the Rumpole series get started in the first place? Well, here’s the short version:
Mortimer wrote a satirical play, “Infidelity Took Place,” in 1968, centered around recently-enacted changes to English divorce law.
The BBC broadcast the play, which featured a divorce lawyer, who displayed characteristics later bestowed upon Rumpole.
The play was a hit. One thing led to another, like it almost always does, and in 1975, the BBC and Mortimer teamed up for a “Rumpole of the Bailey” pilot of sorts.
That was a hit. Then in 1978, Rumpole enjoyed his first official season, seven episodes. That was followed by a second season in 1979.
A “Rumpole Returns” special was broadcast in 1980 – one show only.
Season 3, seven episodes, was 1983; season 4, 1987; season 5, 1988; season 6, 1991; season 7, 1992.
(Can you imagine a show in the U.S. having a staggered run like that?)
In addition to being a TV legend in England for almost 20 years Rumpole became a book figure as well, for each TV season “was accompanied by a book adaptation” written by Mortimer.
The books continued after the TV series ended. And the BBC adapted all the TV episodes for radio, along with seven new stories and a new actor to play Rumpole, Maurice Denham.
McKern and Denham both died in 2002, and the role of Rumpole then went to Timothy West for some new stories in 2003.
The legend lives on.
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at vicfleming@att.net.
|
|