This story concerning the extraction of an apparent false confession must have taken place before police interviews were recorded. This became mandatory following the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.(In 1983 Chief Constable James Anderton said "No machine should be allowed to get in between the suspect and his interrogator. It would break that essential rapport which a detective needs to elicit an admission of guilt legitimately.") The "rotten apple" theory was common at the time - ie, that the police are not corrupt, there are just a few rotten apples. Lord Justice Denning thought that the police should not be attacked even if they were guilty, because it was better for society if people respected them. Guthrie Featherstone manages to get in a few digs at "copper-hating lefties - like the Howard League for Prison Reform". John Mortimer was its President for many years. Rumpole sometimes acted as his mouthpiece, complaining that prisons were more crowded and insanitary than they had been in Victorian times. In this story, Rumpole also sideswipes the idea of human rights, claiming that some people think they should only be applied to a few selected minorities. Rumpole and Mortimer should have known that human rights apply to, well, humans. By this point in the series, Guthrie's flirtations were a tired plot device, but it's fun to see the inner workings of Hilda's bridge club.
