Rumpole and the Confession of Guilt
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- The hour-long pilot episode that aired on BBC1 in 1975 introducing the irrepressible Old Bailey defence lawyer, Horace Rumpole. Features specially filmed interview with writer, John Mortimer.
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back when they actually made proper television programs with something to say and not the absolute garbage reality Tv that passes for quality content today.
The UK is still churning out excellent fictional fare, including adaptations of novels (old and new), crime shows, and comedies, although the English sense of humor tends to baffle Americans. Thankfully, I got it at once while stumbling upon the “Flying Circus” when I was 7 or so. Anyway, businesses produce the crap Americans want, but I’ve never had any trouble finding something good to watch from the UK. Not only that, but the programs are always peopled with veteran actors of the stage, with several who’ve earned nominations for prestigious awards, such as the Olivier, so the acting is always amazing.
@@voraciousreader3341 The BBC is making decent stuff but then it always has, the other channels sitll pump out dross, Ive never had any trouble with British humour Im Australian we get it.
agree you quite right there
@@voraciousreader3341 Only baffles the poorly educated. Not people from the USA, per se.
The lunch dialogue between Nick and Rumpole is painful to listen to, unless you’ve never been either an angry young man or a successful old one who has never really understood his son. Wow.
I worked as an instructing solicitor at the Bailey in the 70s and 80s. There were several "Rumpoles" then
@Patrick Horgan. I would have loved to have witnessed that. Its an actual art.
I can think of one still active, but in Manchester not the Bailey. He even looks like Rumpole and smokes small cigars!
See how they drank freely in the TV of yesteryear? And smoked? Even to the extent of lighting a cigar from a cooker. Imagine the battery of busybodies who would squeal in protest if this were current.
I like olden times, present time is just shit hole and shit hole younger generations
Yes, that was one of the downsides.
and here perfect exposition of 'battery of busybodies' lol
stnicholas54 - thanks for the asthma! Grew up with smoking all around me, even in my workplace until finally, thank god, it was banned.
I'd like to tell you about this nifty little show called Mad Men; it was rather popular, ended just a few years ago, and audiences generally understood that a show set in the 60's that strives for an authentic feel will portray the smoking/drinking habits of the time. I hope you read this, and know that your worries about hysterical modern "pee-see" whiners are quite unfounded.
Great stuff , I must be an old fashioned fart...........
I don't think the wife was shitty at all - I think that's exactly how Mortimer wrote her - you'll notice Rumpole served her breakfast in bed - probably because as originally imagined by Mortimer the wife drank also and she drained the bottle at the end and Rumpole said he'd go to the off-license soon. Rumpole as depicted in this is very witty but certainly very self absorbed and both his son and wife see and know he will never change because that who he is. This is a very dramatic version, early
In 1985, I started driving all over the US for work. At this time, I started looking for recorded books, old time radio shows and the like. It’s what kept me up when driving long distances. Rumpole of the Bailey was the first recorded book I bought and it was read by Leo McKern. I had not seen the show, so this meant that my introduction to Rumpole was a three fold delight: 1. McKern as Rumpole of course, 2. Then more McKern as the narrator and the many, varied voices of all the other characters and 3. The delightful prose of John Mortimer. I have read or listened to all the books and watched the show. It became a lifelong love of the character, the stories and Leo McKern. And yet, it has been many years since I have given thought to it all. Until today. So grateful for the reawakening of fond memories.
Nice story
Hope you got the job you deserved.
Im an old lawyer and I love these, too!
Good one 👍
Well put. Memories are part of our personal history.
I don't like Rumpole's son at all.
McKern's monologues, his sonorous tones, the melancholy and sheer beauty of his expositions make this a joy forever. What a great, powerful and awesome presence guided with such warmth and humility.
well said sir.
This reveals the magic mix - a superb star like LM + these superb scripts + Sublime drama! Writers deserve HUGE respect. The biggest star will fail with a weak script.
@Dr Moriarty Yes, traditionally writers have always been underrated and gained little recognition for the magic they weave. But I am optimistic for their future status, for increasingly the profile of successful scriptwriters is rising and the public has greater awareness and more curiosity about the men who women who pen their favourite dramas. And good scripts will forever be the lifeblood of all TV and big screen entertainment. I guess I would say that, as a writer myself!
Incidentally - your ditty 'writers are like wives and salesmen...' could equally apply to husbands. Just sayin'!
Absolutely exactly - he is and was a gift.
One of Rumpole's (and Mortimer's) best lines:, describing the judge: "Giving me a look of vague disgust, like Queen Victoria with a bad period". Classic!
No one could have played Rumpole except Leo Mckern. Just love these short stories. They never date. Thank you.
Kind of amazing. All the elements are here in the pilot, from "She who must be obeyed" to the cigar to Wordsworth, etc, etc, etc. And Leo McKern wears Rumpole like an old suit. What a pro.
That's because 'all the elements ' come from John Mortimer's books !
What a gem of a drama! As a one-off original it is much harder edged than the series which followed. The relationship between wife and husband is subtly, exquisitely drawn - the actress is wonderful. I love the more lighthearted series, but this stands apart.. Thanks so much for posting - didn't know it existed. It stands in its own right!
I’ve always thought the English “tradition” of sending boys away to boarding school at the age of 7 or 8, or even 10, to be entirely barbarous. I dk whether or not the tradition of the upper classes had it’s root in the practice of sending boys of the nobility to serve as pages in other noble families to learn the trade of knighthood, but the fact that this practice continues today is nothing short of bizarre. Such defenseless and terrified children; such blind obedience to ritual in their parents; it defies logic. After I had two sons, the practice seemed even more barbarous, bc I had before me the young innocents which to that point had been purely abstract, and I wondered why English people engaged in this practice bothered to have children at all, since they surely had no hand in raising them!
I think in the Middle Ages it was important to do so, as people married much younger, particularly women. However, men were equally apt to become engaged early, and needed to learn fighting, how to care for the estate, to manage people, etc. Young girls were often also sent to other important houses to take lady lessons. The sum of these circulations were long-standing relationships with other people, hopefully with land, people to marry, or close to the king. The same is true today. The reason children are sent away to school is almost exactly the same. Business, networking, prestige.
John Mortimer created Rumpole in print but it was Leo McKern who brought him to life, and what a life! Leo McKern was a national treasure and as Rumpole he rose to pure gold and beyond. Thanks Rumpole!
Agreed
Did he pleaded guilty to death
What?
I think the question is was Oswald acquitted? It's a little unclear although easy to presume.
Good old Leo - an Australian actor, who created a British national treasure.
This wife is so disrespectful of her steady, supportive husband... she calls him names, even. My mother did that to my father too. It's awful to hear that. 👂
Brilliant and profound. "Who am I really?" Pause. A moment of reflection, then immediate business and distraction. A character brought to life with such manner of self-doubt and hope.
Oh, Rumpole!!! And She Who Must Be Obeyed!!! How I miss intelligent programming...
This episode is one of the best of British creativity and legal artistry. The clever use of words and the adversarial calm way in which Rumpole fended off the judge is truly poetic.
"You can't be born or die in a dignified position how do you expect to live in one?"-there's a quote for the ages.
It seemed to me that Rumpole reversed his persona in this episode. When he goes to see Ozzie the first time, he is full of righteousness at the way society has bred a bunch of conscienceless, sociopathic youth who, but for Rumpole's defense, would get his just desserts--a very conservative, law and order stance. Midway through the second interview with Ozzie, he is suddenly full of righteousness at the thought that Ozzie DIDN'T deserve to go to prison--A very liberal, "all of us are guilty of something" stance. I too have to question "who is he, indeed, this Rumpole?" Did the playwright even know?
Rumpole didn't "reverse" his position as such, he just didn't have all the facts to be going on with at the start. It goes to show that confirmation bias has always been the worst enemy of justice, and not even Rumpole was immune.
The writing of this is just magnificent and McKern delivers it like a sword blade glittering in the dark.
Nice simile!
without doubt, brilliance of the first order 🎉
Back when dialogue mattered.
I don't watch TV often, but found myself being forced to watch Poldark recently . It was nothing more than heaving bustiers, an excess of slow mo striding set to atmospheric music, breathy glances, brooding, and pouting. Not to mention the incomprehensible story line murdered amongst the constant switching between seasons and dearth of dialogue. Give me Rumpole, I, Claudius and Lord Peter Wimsey every day of the week over that bollocks.
The old Poldark was great, true Morse, endeavour fabulous x
They don’t make classics like this anymore - provocative, yet thoughtful ...
This was a standalone 1975 'Play for Today' by the BBC. These were high quality weekly dramas often written to illuminate some serious problem in British society - with superb writing, casts and acting. A genre sadly missed today, generally.
Oddly, it was left to a competing network broadcaster, Thames Television, to turn it into a popular success that ran to 44 episodes in 7 series between 1978 and 1992
My grandfather once convicted a man to death. He (the convict) did not go into appeal. He was too poor. My grandfather used to say he used to have nightmare where that man would come in his dreams and say " sahib I am innocent...sahib I am innocent " thats the nagging doubt Rumpole is talking about
what a thing to have on your conscience....
I guess one would have to have thick skin to be involved in certain cases.
My Dad had to deliver a prisoner to "tribal justice", ie execution. He begged and screamed and soiled himself, very sad he said. It was in the Yemen.
When I was a young boy, a long retired Indian Raj Army Major told me that he was asked by one of the Indian Soldiers to defend him on a murderer charge. At this time he was a Lieutenant. From memory this was overseas somewhere - maybe Malaya or Singapore.
As usual it involved a woman and money. The Major tried his best, but the soldier was found guilty and sentenced to death.
The Soldier asked him to be present at the hanging. When he arrived at the cell, with the party to lead him to the execution, the Indian Soldier saluted him, and thanked him for defending him. The old Major told me the Soldier marched to the rope quite fearlessly. The Major on the other hand was shaking like a leaf.
All of this must have been just post WW1. The Major never forgot. He remembered the soldiers name, and said it was the worst thing in his life.
The old defence lawyers saying is "the most frightening client to have is an innocent one. Because if you lose you will be haunted forever".
I love the whole Rumpole cannon. But this pilot. Best of all.. Thanks.
Fantastic stuff. I haven't seen this for years, and it's lost none of its humour and dramatic effect. The dialogue is just delicious, Rumpole delighting in upsetting the judge and tripping up his opposition by quoting Wordsworth, and utilising his unique insouciance in his relentless and idiosyncratic pursuit of justice. Shakespeare would have been proud of such a sublime entertainment. John Mortimer was a genius, as was Leo McKern, and this has to rank as one of the best examples of British TV drama ever made. Many thanks for uploading this, old darling!
I’m a California attorney. I’ve had the privilege of representing criminal defense clients. At times, I felt the cynicism inherent in the system waft over me.
But then I see Mortimer’s Rumpole. It’s humbling. If I could only have a tenth of this barrister’s wit I’d consider myself well armed against a jaded prosecution, ready to hammer down that “golden thread” of British justice that we Americans so readily adopted: all are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
I cannot describe how inspiring it is to see a lawyer - even if but an idealized character - maintain this principle as his guiding star.
I’m going to learn a lot to-watching these.
Jonathan, the writer of this drama, John Mortimer, was a barrister himself. He was the defender in many famous cases. You should read about his life. Very inspiring.
@@jimclark1374 And the son of a barrister, who practiced for over 20 years after he went blind. Amazing.
Wonderful comment. If I could reccomend a couple of texts. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. EPJ Corbett. Also the more light hearted The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth.
* that “golden thread” of British justice that we Americans so happily inherited
“She who must be obeyed”........loved this show....
John Mortimer was a barrister & a writer, he created a superhero of the legal profession. Brought to life by the wonderful Leo McKern, old darlings !
To have a husband who recites poetry while serving me
breakfast in bed, is my idea of heaven💜
I know...he really is a sweetie.
Strange how this quintessential English character was played by an Aussie !
Just brilliant he was.
The Ozzies are our brothers and sisters so no surprise. Just as are the arabs.
He was equally great as Thomas Cromwell in A Man for All Seasons...
someone doing the history of the McKerns traces the Australian branch back to McKerns who fled the Irish famine in 1848 and before that they had links in Scotland , I am claiming him as Irish ha ha Brill actor. They sent their book and research to Leo McKern who sent back a grateful note.
Lots of Australians made there mark in Britain we have always welcomed all..even Australians 😊
Well Doctor Who was written by an Australian in the first episode, an Australian thought of the police box and an Australian wrote the iconic Dr Who theme tune so its not the first time we Aussies created an icon for the UK.
i could watch this episode a hundred times.
what genius is John Mortimer.
thank you DS for the great public service of uploading.
Absolutely superb! Nothing nowadays comes close.
Thank you, Mr. Rumpole! I frequently find myself uttering your razorblade tongue in cheek comments to my management who are stakeholders of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
"My boy made a pass at an imaginary musketeer and wounded a real life accountant from Muswell Hill " hahahaha
“You can’t be born or die in a dignified position, how can you live in one?”
That stood out for me too.
When you listen to, and closely watch, the details, one can see just how well done this is.
The segments from 36:10 to 44:3 and 45:03 to 47:40 especially resonate with fine writing, dialogue, and acting.
The closing segment also shows just how good the writers and actors are. Joyce Heron, who portrays Rumpole’s wife, is exceptionally good.
Many thanks to the host for sharing. Much appreciated.
What fantastic writing, acting and production. I can watch this several times and pick up different things, inflections, even dialogue, each time. This was made in a time when there wasn't even VCR's available to re-watch if one wished. These days, nearly every tv episode is available on some form of media, or able to be streamed, ready to re-watch with high definition picture and sound, but the writing is so often dismal and formulaic, that there is no point in revisiting an episode despite the ease with which it's possible.
How fortunate we are! I just found that I could watch these tonight. What a joy!
I've reread all his books in quarantine, and here the voice in my head gets to rear his ..... head. lol
What a treat! I watched them all on first run, and then...
This is awesome.
We live in a lazy society nowadays. It's just not the same in my eyes anymore. There is no novelty in what I what I want to watch, because every thing is at a touch of a button alas.
Watching Leo McKern's portrayal of Rumpole is every bit as entertaining as it is reading John Mortimer's Rumpole stories. On the whole, such an accurate symbiosis is rare when setting books to film. I find that the British are far more successful at remaining true to the source material. That's why I have enjoyed re-reading and re-watching Rumpole stories so much. There's a magic in both media; and it's truly splendid.
The Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett is another example of that. Those two shows along with Monty Python and Dr. Who represent my Golden Age of British telly on PBS. Who says "you can't go home again"?
You should see Leo McKern in the Beatles movie Help! He has a more comedic role and he's so entertaining. Great actor.
@@brandonallen3289
I saw it, but Rumpole was truly his best work. I've seen him in movies and TV shows since the 1970's, but when it comes to Rumpole... that part was made for him.
@@MickPsyphon Yes, you are totally correct.
When I was young, Basil Rathbone was my Sherlock. I changed my mind. Jeremy Brett was the perfect Holmes, once I saw him, and no one can compare. He defined the role.
The same happened with David Suchet and Poirot. I had discovered the books decades before, yet, I can never see any other.
Joan Hickson embodies Miss Marple.
Bruno Cremer is the ultimate Maigret. I'd read so many of the books before ever seeing him, and knowing that he was perfect.
Leo was the very best Rumpole imaginable.
In lockdown, I reread all of the books, picturing Leo every step of the way.
We are so fortunate to have so many excellent productions.
I am so grateful. I've been such a huge mystery/justice fan all my life, since Nancy Drew, at age 9.
And, I'm old.
And, because of this thread, I'm about to watch "Help!" again. I remember going to my local theater to see it as a first run. What a trip!
John Mortimer wrote the tv shows first, then created the book series based on the screenplays.
A much darker Rumpole episode. Rather sad and disturbing dialogue between father and son in the pub. Rumple makes light of life but his was far from simple.
Fantastic. I don't think we'll see anything of this quality again. God rest BBC drama.
Thank you Leo for breathing life and air and imagination into Rumpole. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
I went the way of the law not exactly because of Messrs. Mortimer or McKern here but because of Sirs Henry Cecil and Patrick Hastings. They took me by the larynx and throttled me until I bled of every air - and then they dumped me out to dry. But had I spied Horace Rumpold as I have these many days lately, I swear by the law I’d live and by the law I’d die.
A wonderfully powerful performance, by Mr Mckern, et al., full of pathos and thoughtful comment on human conditioning.
My late father and I would sit and watch every episode. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. I can't help but think of my dad, when I see this.
I used to watch with my nan... who has been gone a long time too. Also developed a love of Peter Ustinov at the same time. Wonderful inter connected memories. And awesome wonderful Rumpole. Penge bungalow.. Portia... she who must be obeyed .. chateau embankment.... truly love it all.
Noted some "upper class" comments below! as a piece of scruff I have to say Runpole was Pure class If only they made other law telly as good-nothing- past or present law tv compared
I have to agree.
I've generally thought of this as "the British Perry Mason," but even "Perry Mason" pales in comparison.
Interesting that several VERY successful "law shows" shared the same basic format: lawyer sees something wrong with the case & ends up solving it in court.
jeff pace Not true. Mason lost only one case, and that was a big deal at the time. Rumpole lost lots of cases and would often accept a plea bargain.
I don't remember this Hilda. Not quite the "she who must be obeyed" type. But Rumpole is brilliant and as enjoyable as ever. One thing the British are best at is creating deep characters that leap off the page and the screen and into one's life.
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBC,QC was an English Barrister at law , and wrote the Rumpole stories . They are said to be based on his father , Clifford Mortimer who also was a Barrister .
Voyage Round my Father with Alan Bates playing the fictional son, yes indeed. I also loved the translations of Feydeau farces. Clifford Mortimer was blind, poetical, irrascible and fiercely independent. Besides the Rumpole series I also appreciated John Mortimer's political satire during the '80s; The Titmous series -- very possibly mis-spelled will look it up. Absolutely marvelous writer.
John Mortimer created and Leo McKern gave life to Rumpole of the Bailey.
"In the passage of time, sensitivity drops away unnoticed- like hair comes out on the comb." Delightful.
So very true Lance.
Leo Mckern great Australian actor
Thank you for uploading this.
Horace Rumpole is a man of enormous integrity. Let us all strive to be so.
It's interesting how each of the three actresses portraying Hilda played the role so differently. I like Joyce Heron's interpretation, and I notice the writers abandoned the hints that Hilda was an alcoholic after this episode.
Also note: Hilda doesn't have a name in this episode. She's just "Mrs. Rumpole."
No worries the fems who invaded BBC and media in the 80's altered anything negative about females.
Just remember the Leo is an Australian.
This is pure gold
So glad I found this
Honestly the books are an amusing fancy but the series provides a counterpoint to the image rumpole projects of himself, which is less challenged in the books, rumpole being the sole narrator. I've often thought of the pub scene between father and son, with Nick trying in vain to break through the character rumpole plays. It's beautiful acting. Mortimer said Leo McKern was Rumpole but actually he was more. He filled out the character sublimely.
My favourite episode of all. And ironically, it's not even an episode of ITV's "Rumpole", but BBC's "Play for Today!" Great story and narrative.
Absolute GOLD!
Thanks for putting in on.
/bc
"Never EVER plead guilty!" My favorite (and quite correct!) legal quote by Horace Rumpole (of the Old Bailey) Was my Saturday night Britcom and drama teevee Saturday night public broadcasting routing for many years back in the 90's. I never watched teevee on the Sabbath. That was reserved for the noon mass radio broadcast of St. Stanislaus Mass for shut-ins, followed up with afternoon Polka music until the 5 p.m. news hour. Then it was Jeff Piecynski's (sic) evening Polka Party show from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. then off to bed because i had to get up for work the next day. Really cool times, that are now gone forever except in the recesses of my mind and memory.
This used to be on the CBC on Sundays back in the 70s but I was 6 so it was right over my head. Wish it was still on now because now I would LOVE watching it.
This was a wonderful introduction to a masterpiece series. Thanks for sharing.
In the days when in Britain there was no such thing as cappuccino, americano, doppio, latte, mocha, espresso - just a coffee. 😂
You mean the days when in Britain there was every kind of beverage except coffee, no matter what they called it.
I have just been rewatching this episode, after seeing the rerun of the Rumpole ITV series on Talking Pictures T.V. - it is good to see how the series evolved, and to note the changes. But one thing remains beyond doubt, John Mortimer was a superb writer, and Leo McKern grew into the part - he, too, was superb.
It would have been interesting to know how Hilda's alcoholism developed, but this was never raised in the ITV series
Made in the days when TV was worth watching
I agree, such a shame that most young people today never bother to watch older quality Television. They would rather watch people who have just met on a desert island, or in a locked house, then asking, 'who will get to shag who' when in work the next day. BRAIN DEAD NUMPTIES ONE AND ALL
What a sad old man you are.
Geez Louise. If I had a nickel for every time someone moaned about the good old days I would be richer than Bill Gates.
I remember watching these glorious episodes as a child and teenager , how wonderful to revisit old friends .
one of the things i like most about rumpole is that he is the first admit the absurdity of his profession.
Give me a bottle of Thames Ordinary, a small cigar and I could watch Rumpole until Eternity comes a-callin.
prplnite1 I'd rather imbibe Chateau Thames Embankment!
I don't think Hilda was well cast, too much of a harridan. Leo McKern is splendid.
It can't be called a 'pilot', it was strictly a one off for the BBC's Play for Today strand. It was Thames that picked it up as a series.
The judge in this also played the lead vampire in the 1963 film "kiss of the vampire". Bit of useless but interesting bit of information for you kiddies.
Leo McKern was made for this role, an absolutely wonderful classical/character actor who could steal any scene in which he featured. The series this play inspired proved enormously successful. I don't think "she who must be obeyed" ever featured again. Like Elizabeth Mainwering of `Dad's Army', she was a one-episode-wonder who otherwise became an abstraction. Check Leo out in SF's `The Day The Earth Caught Fire' & `X the Unknown' or Zimmerman's costume drama `A Man For All Seasons' - rock solid performances each time...
Of course SWMBO featured again -- in almost every episode. Two other actresses -- initially Peggy Thorpe-Bates and then, when Peggy became ill, Marion Mathie -- took the role of Hilda Rumpole. Hilda's role was pivotal in that she was always reminding Rumpole that her father had been a judge, and she wished Rumpole would give up defending clients and start prosecuting so that he could advance to the judge's bench himself. She made a nice counterpoint to Rumpole's esoteric musings.
@@coopdivi Thanks, that's very interesting, because I have no recollection of her at all! Perhaps that's a measure of how absorbing Leo McKern and the legal stories were. Or maybe I'm going senile or summat...
What a great actor ! And delicious script.
Also thought it was great to see an episode that was uploaded full screen rather than this recent "postage stamp within a background" format I see so often these days.
This was very different to the Rumpole that he later became. It became an article of faith that Rumpole did not plead guilty. However Rumpole’s advocacy was superb.
It was also interesting that Hilda was much less of a caricature that she became later.
I think Nick was totally out of line. If a defendant says he didn’t do it, then the defendant deserves the best his brief can give him. It is one of the basics of a justice system that it is better that a number of guilty go free than one innocent be convicted. In this case the verdict had to be ‘not guilty ‘, because Rumpole established reasonable doubt.
Rarely has a role and an actor been better matched
Gosh! Reminds me of my childhood. Saturday evenings infront of the telly with mum and dad. Good times. 🤗🏴🇸🇭
Back to a time where substance mattered over style!
Sad to say that people these days (2019) don’t have the concentration span to follow the dialogue in this series. It is weird how the system works, that the solicitor works with the client and the barrister reads a file and barely has a thing to do with the person he is defending.
Changed somewhat now, since the Bar introduced its Public Access Scheme, whereby subject to certain criteria, barristers may be directly engaged by the general public, without the intermediary of an instructing solicitor. They are also now permitted to interview clients and witnesses without a solicitor or a member of the solicitor's staff being present (absolutely prohibited in 1975 when this was filmed). The Public Access Scheme was implemented in response to qualifying solicitors being granted Higher Rights of Audience before the upper-level courts.
Rumpole 'fought' for the young Jamaican. He then got elated because he won justice for someone who doesn't have a chance otherwise, who's been told to give up even on himself and was prepared to. That's what the case had to do with the Wordsworth in the washroom. And Rumpole took plenty humiliation from the judge, which embarassed his own son, and yet he was in the right the whole time, his own son judging him wrongly. It was virtually biblical. as i saw it anyway. thanks for your good will.
One of my favorite novels/episodes. Mortimer was so far left, and so unappreciated. His novels were so empathetic. I've read them all twice, and enjoyed the series, too. Lockdown was a blessing, giving me time to revisit them all.
@@jzthompson9598 I would say a classic liberal. The Left was and is always so bitter. Check out from 08:05 " . . . the individual supreme!" Not really a left-wing ideal.
Never knew this one existed. Thanks so much for posting it.
Wow that N word came out of nowhere, but said in a matter of fact way.
I've only watched it for 4:47 and I'm already in love with it!
I would love to have seen Horace Rumpole v. Jeremy Parsons QC from Crown Court (Richard Wilson). What a trial that would have been.
Only one video posted but oh, what a jewel. I thought I had purchased all the Rumpole DVD sets & the books, but this was one I had never before seen.
Though an American, I am a huge Rumpole fan. On my shelf, I have a 12" tall replica of FW Pomeroy's Themis (Lady Justice) on the Old Bailey dome. Every time I look at, I imagine the artwork from the opening of the program showing Themis arm-in-arm with Rumpole, and instead of the sword, Rumpole holds his arm outstretched with his umbrella pointed upward.
Welsh Rabbit - this wouldn't be in the DVD box set. The TV series' that produced the DVDs was made by, and broadcast by, Thames Television, a no longer existing, independent (ie: not BBC) broadcaster. The show that you have just seen was from the BBC Play for Today series. Two different and competing companies.
Stacked and layered and compressed with humor. I could be in love with this series. In love.
a great scene with Nick. wow so true so sad so on the mark. Nick doesn't have much insight
Shame this is the only episode on RUclips in good condition (some other ones crop the video and messed with the audio for copyright © reasons). It’s harder to get this kind of programming where I am from other sources.
Terry Murphy Thanks for the information but as I’m in Canada 🇨🇦 I can’t access the “Freeview” channels (no antenna would be big enough sadly). I only just discovered this program and I quite enjoyed this episode! 🙂
These were the days. When shall we see the likes of a Rumple again? Perhaps as we get older we look too much to the past for good TV
Gerard O'Donnell I can't watch the t.v. anymore.
It’s all down to nostalgia and rose colored glasses. I get really annoyed at the constant repetition of “ they don’t make them like they used to”. Smacks of “hey you kids get off my lawn”. I’m 70, and while I enjoy watching shows from the past I don’t want to be stuck there.
It made me think of "Waiting for Godot" at the end there. Quite powerful tragedy
Not bad English for a Aussie, Leo!
I had never seen that play before. In the series that came out of it, Rumpole's character was developed and deepened considerably, and the exchanges between characters were sharpened up a lot.
For more of the indefatigable Mr Mckern , check out the 1987 , low budget Australian film , Traveling North . I think a David Williamson piece . Fantastic supporting cast , coupled with unpretendsive direction , and production values . An absolute precious gem .
Also "a jolly bad fellow" . Trust me do NOT miss it!
Ahh Wordsworth. 'Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.'
The quality of TV shows was vastly superior and more charming in those years
After the pilot episode how on earth did the BBC let Rumpole slip from its grasp.
I've watched many Rumpole episodes and read all the books up to and including "Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders," but had not seem this before -- and it this was the best of any of it!. The squalor, the cynicism, the gin-soaked Mrs. Rumpole, and the very long awkwardness of Nick challenging his father. Awesome!
Obviously NOT an American programme!
Hilda is a lot more intelligent and sympathetic in this pilot. But such a three-dimensional character makes a less pointed foil for the wit of the lead character.
OrchestrationOnline Poor old drunk.
I used to watch these in my younger days. I don't recall seeing this episode though. That 1 hour just flew by like 10 minutes!
That emotionally charged ending! That’s what’s missing these days. Less is more
Rumpole is a Barister who fail to escape the quill of Charles Dickens and had to wait till Johnny
Mortimer finally hurled him a sharpened brief to dig his way out of literary imagination.
Now Rumlploes shade Haunts the Magpie and Stump inhaling Claret spilt by the nervous hands of Junior leads.
And occasionally putting embarrassing creases in the silk robes of former Q.C.'s now K.C.s just before they take centre stage at the Old Bailey.
I worked with Leo and together we went together an island for a day at the chiefs invitation in the Tarawa islands. Always fun and didn't take any crap from the Australian producer
Will always be a legend and left us with great stories.