For years, if not decades, “Rumpole of the Bailey” was a familiar face on public television—one of a dozen great programs that introduced America to the piercing wit of British television. All 42 episodes have been released on a 14-disc DVD set.
At the center of the drama-comedy strode a pugnacious London barrister, Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern). He was rumpled and red-nosed under his bowler hat, fond of wine and little cigars and disdainful of those who misused power. An eloquent orator in court and in private, he was known to recite Wordsworth while buttering his breakfast toast.
Based on the stories of John Mortimer, Rumpole was an old-fashioned liberal who believed the purpose of law was to protect the powerless. He saved his sharpest arrows of rebuke for corrupt cops, mealy mouthed social workers and his mendacious colleagues-at-law, many of them lickspittles of banks and corporations. From the debut of the series in 1978 through its final bow in 1992, Rumpole’s hair grayed and the production values increased while the writing remained top drawer and the acting never less than superb.
