Rumpole of the Bailey: Difference between revisions

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[[File:rumpole_19.jpg|frame|Horace Rumpole]]

 

[[ITV]] series, intermittently from 1978 to 1992, following a one-off [[The BBC|BBC]] drama, focused on the professional and personal life of one Horace Rumpole, barrister at law. Rumpole's unhealthy personal habits, disdain for societal expectation, and general sharp-tongued iconoclasm earn him few marks among his peers or family. Despite his successes, he is something of an embarrassment to his class-conscious chambers. At home, he has to endure the well-meaning haranguing of his wife, semi-affectionately referred to by Horace as "She Who Must Be Obeyed", a reference to the [[H. Rider Haggard]] novel ''[[She]]'' -- one of Rumpole's simple vices is a love of English literature. Although ostensibly mysteries in many cases, the cases he undertakes are very unlike the standard Whodunnit, Agatha Christie murder mystery -- in some cases, Rumpole's task is merely to prove how his client didn't commit the crime (more often assault, fraud or theft than out-and-out murder) rather than ferret out the true culprit (although he frequently does so anyway). And, like the [[Sherlock Holmes]] cycle, sometimes no crime has really been committed at all.

 

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* [[A Day in the Limelight]]: "Hilda's Story," collected in ''Rumpole and the Angel of Death.''

* [[Against My Religion]]: Frequently invoked/joked about: whatever religion Rumpole follows, it forbids prosecuting and pleading guilty (unless, of course, he knows for a fact that the client did it).