Rumpole of the Bailey (TV Series) Rumpole and the Honourable Member (1978) User Reviews

Legal Don Quixote

[ygwerin1 · 8/10 · 29 October 2018]

Horace Rumpole barrister at law, with wife Hilda (She who must be obeyed) son Nick, and American girlfriend Erica. Rumpole's Father in law is C.H. Wystan. Head of Chambers, in Rumpole's legal Practice.

Hilda's aims in life for her husband is for him to get on in the law as a Judge, and at the very least achieving the dizzying heights scaled by her daddy. Despite years of married life Hilda still doesn't seem to know her own husband. Any woman in Rumpole's legal life, clients and fellow Barristers, Hilda assumes Horace is up to no good. She never appears to be prepared to give her husband even the benefit of any possible doubt.

Son Nick "the brains of the family" Public School, Oxford, Princeton, Baltimore University, Florida married life. Nicks fiancé Erica wants to "see something of our morays" and to view her father in law in action.

Rumpole's Chambers is populated by a motley collection of characters. C.H.Wystan is the original Head of Chambers, favouring a Silk (Queens Council) as his replacement. His son in laws legal stamping ground of the Old Bailey, is not considered as salubrious enough for a Head of Chambers.

The oldest Chambers member is Uncle Tom, starting at the Bar around the same time as C.H. Wystan. He never appears to have any legal practice, seemingly satisfied to simply play golf in the Chambers. He lives in the past, being woken up to vote for a Welsh Barrister.

Chambers Clerks are Albert and Henry, who's so keen to jump from junior to senior Clerk, he can't wait to put the skids under Albert.

Chambers Barristers are time and self serving sychophants, more interested in petty bureaucracy than legal matters.

Disturbing episode

[lucyrfisher · 2 December 2013]

I've just watched this episode - I think for the first time. (I think I started watching at the second series.) The early Rumpole episodes addressed some difficult moral questions. Rumpole sticks to the barrister's etiquette book, and never prosecutes, but is he on the side of the right? Is Mortimer hinting that lawyers don't decide on right or wrong? This particular story is painful to watch. An MP, Mr Aspen, (played brilliantly by Anton Rogers), is accused of rape by one of his young, female political aides. His wife is present as he tells Rumpole the story. Stone-faced Mrs Aspen seems unfazed by the details. Oddly, they both use the euphemism "he made love to her" throughout. Aspen doesn't deny having sex with the aide, but was it rape? The case comes to court, and Rumpole attacks Aspen's accuser. This seems uncharacteristic for the cuddly Rumpole, but was more common at the time, and Mortimer was probably making a point. The accuser (who looks uncannily like Mrs Aspen), breaks down, admits to being distressed over a relationship breakup, admits to having had sexual relationships when a schoolgirl, to having had an abortion... I told you it was an upsetting episode. Mortimer may also have been critiquing the (very recently passed) law legalising abortion. (The law still requires two doctors to certify that having a baby would be damaging to the woman's mental health.) The accuser is free of make-up (perhaps to look respectable), and looks very young. She is in contrast with the juror Rupole picks out as sympathetic (a heavily made-up older woman who sits in the jury box powdering her nose). Unfortunately the actress playing the accused is not very convincing. Or is the writing at fault? Or the direction? Mortimer was middle-aged at the time, and his younger characters don't always seem authentic. (The accused is also wearing an unflattering brown corduroy beret of a type I don't remember.) Also in court are Rumpole's son and his American fiancé. They are both shocked by the Rumpole's handling of the case, and Nick Rumpole is persuaded to make his home in Baltimore. He is a much more rounded younger character (and played very well by David Yelland). Fiancé Erica is seems more artificial (her "American" accent slips), though her dowdy clothes ring true (she's a sociologist). Perhaps Mortimer was also having a dig at sociologists. Where are writers as good, or as complex, now? Mortimer learned a lot from Shakespeare. Each episode has a theme, a moral problem, a contrasting secondary moral problem, and sometimes a third. Characters are drawn from all layers of society. There are foolish lords, knowing knaves, tarts with hearts, redoubtable Roman matrons and great ladies. One of whom is even nicknamed Portia. Rumpole and Hilda (She Who Must Be Obeyed!) are closer than they think. And yes, I'm going to work my way through the whole series.

Rumpole and the Honourable Member

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 September 2021]

It is 1974 and it would have meant a Labour government would have come to power in both elections held that year.

Rumpole is called into defend a high flying Labour MP Ken Aspen accused of raping party worker Bridget Evans.

After speaking to the MP, Rumpole is confident that he could get him off. The accuser defaced his poster beforehand, showing that she was angry at him.

At the trial Rumpole pummels the accuser during the cross examination. Something that horrifies Nick's American girlfriend who has come to see Rumpole in action.

Unfortunately Ken Aspen falls apart when giving evidence. Did he rape Bridget or was he in fear of the expectations of getting into government. Up to one point the trial judge was more sympathetic towards the politician.

It leaves Rumpole in a sore mood as his own client sabotaged the defence.

As for son Nick. You expected fireworks when Rumpole rather foolishly invited him and his girlfriend to the Old Bailey. It was tactless by Rumpole given the sensitive nature of rape and as a result Nick decides to take a job offer in America.

Worse still, Albert the chief clerk of the chambers is accused of embezzlement. Taking the petty cash and is asked to leave. Rumpole does not take it well. He and Albert have been together for 40 years and Albert always fought to get Rumpole good quality briefs.

It does mean that Rumpole has been at the bar since 1934. Something to think about as the final series went on until 1992. I did get the impression in the later years that Rumpole himself became a bit of a relic.