Rumpole of the Bailey (TV Series) Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson (1992) User Reviews

Late, but interesting

[lucyrfisher · 2 March 2014]

The series fell off rather in its later episodes. The direction became broader and more conventional. The office life, originally filmed as "fly on the wall", ran out of story lines. The office colleagues became caricatures of themselves. Here the main characters - Rumpole, Bernard, Hilda, Henry - are as good as ever. And writer John Mortimer still has points he wishes to put before the jury. Here he wants to show us a Victorian style philanthropist who runs a private scheme to tackle juvenile delinquency by reforming individual youths - they have to confess their sins publicly. I wonder if he's based on a real person? Back at the ranch, the new typist, Dot, is causing a furore by wearing a tiny nose stud. Oh, very funny (and she wears a loud polka-dot blouse too). She is a good actress - but somebody should have told her to hit the space bar and carriage return every now and then.

Rumpole and the Reform of Joby Jonson

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 10 June 2021]

There are several Doctor Who links in this story.

Camille Coduri joined as new secretary Dot in the final series. Her nose stud causes consternation with head of chambers Samuel Ballard. It is not the image that he wants the chambers to portray.

Ballard also upsets Claude Erskine-Brown as he applies to be a QC once again. Ballard thinks that Claude is not good enough to be a QC. This leads to some harsh words by Claude.

Phyllida Erskine-Brown uses some sly tactics to make Ballard to bat for Claude.

Rumpole thinks he has had a break in. This might be connected with him defending young Joby Jonson played by John Simm in his debut role. Joby a former offender has been accused of robbing and battering an elderly woman.

Soon Rumpole finds that Joby is linked to Sir Sebastian Pilgrim. A former test cricketer turned property developer and philanthropist with an interest in offenders.

Pilgrim is planning a major development near Euston Station and some householders have been reluctant to sell. The victim was one of these people.

Rumpole also comes face to face with Joby's MP. Tom Mottram (Julian Fellowes) who also had business links with Pilgrim.

I thought Claude's story and Phyllida's flirting with Ballard just got in the way of the main story. It was all too broad and rather silly. I would have thought Ballard would be happy to have another QC at the chambers.

As for the central story. I could not understand why Rumpole went out of his way to upset Mr Justice Graves. In past shows Rumpole shows cunning or plain stubbornness to get around difficult judges.

It is left to a coda where new evidence comes to light that would come to the aid of Joby.

As for Phyllida Erskine-Brown, she moves upwards to a judgeship. Effectively it was an acknowledgement that Patricia Hodge had moved on to bigger and better things in the intervening years since her character was introduced.