User Reviews

1970. Rumpole is off to the West Country to defend a young woman who has been trapped by the police on a drug dealing charge. She is part of an alternative lifestyle commune and there's a risk that her activist boyfriend undermines her case.

Episode 1 of Rumpole of the Bailey was a fairly dry affair and was not particularly engaging. Episode 2 is almost immediately an improvement with an interesting story and a decent degree of character engagement. The case seems cut and dried but as information comes to light one's views on the guilt of the defendant change, making for a great arc to one's feelings.

Just when it seems set to be great, however, it takes a turn for the unsatisfactory. It's still a better episode than Episode 1 but is disappointing in that it could have been so much better than it ended up being.

This episode is set in 1970. Rumpole leaves the Old Bailey and heads out to the western circuit to defend a teacher living in a hippie commune from a drug dealing charge.

Rumpole dreams of a sumptuous lunch on the train followed by a nice bottle of Great Western's finest plonk. He is in for a rude surprise.

His digs is with some all friends from the RAF. As for the case, Rumpole is certain that the teacher Kathy (Jane Asher) was fitted up by an undercover policeman.

All Rumpole needs to do is keep Kathy's boyfriend away from opening his mouth in court.

It looks like a straightforward case for Rumpole. He is enchanted by Kathy who can quote Wordsworth.It is just that Kathy wants to make a political point regarding her brother, banged up in Turkey. Rumpole is faced with a conflict with the Bar code of conduct.

A bittersweet episode by writer John Mortimer. Rumpole's adherence to his duties to the Bar are more important than a deluded client.