Showing results by author "John Mortimer" in All Categories

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole continues to juggle the vagaries of the law, the ambiguities of crime, and the contradictions of the human heart. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

On England's green and pleasant land there are dark rumblings of concrete mixers, bulldozers and planning committees, local and ministerial. In Rapstone Manor, Lady Grace Fanner is dying, defiant to the last. Awaiting the event is the Right Honourable Leslie Titmuss MP, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Ecological Affairs and Planning (HEAP).

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases, including Rumpole and the Teenage Werewolf, Rumpole and the Right to Privacy, Truth Makes All Things Plain, and The Past Catches Up with Us All....

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in this collection of cracking court cases. The stories included are: Rumpole and the Primrose Path, Rumpole and the Scales of Justice, Rumpole and the Vanishing Juror, Rumpole Redeemed.

It’s high summer when Molly Pargeter drags her amiably bickering family to a rented Tuscan villa for the holidays. Molly is sure that the house is the perfect setting for their three-week getaway, but soon she becomes fascinated by the lives of the absent owners and things start to go horribly wrong.

Lord Titmuss is still a figure with formidable influence in his constituency, but now the Conservatives face a difficult by-election after the strange death of the sitting Tory MP. Terry Flitton, the New Labour candidate, is confident of victory. But Titmuss seems to know a great deal about Terry, and quite a lot about the late and unmourned MP.... The Sound of Trumpets represents the triumphant completion of a political trilogy that began with Paradise Postponed and Titmuss Regained.

Julian Rhind-Tutt takes on the role of Rumpole in this fifth collection of cracking court cases. Starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as Rumpole, Jasmine Hyde as Hilda and Nigel Anthony as Claude Erskine-Brown. A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.

When Simeon Simcox, a socialist clergyman, leaves his entire fortune not to his family but to the ruthless, social-climbing Tory MP Leslie Titmuss, the Rector's two sons react in very different ways. Henry, novelist and former 'angry young man' turned grumpy old reactionary, decides to fight the will and prove their father was insane. Younger brother Fred, a mild-mannered country doctor, takes a different approach, quietly digging in Simeon's past, only to uncover an entirely unexpected explanation for the legacy.

In the dark days of the war on terror, only one man can be counted on to fight injustice, defend the innocent, and insist on a fair and decent trial for all, contrary to New Labour's new anti-terrorism laws. Rumpole's wig may be yellowing at the roots, his gown might be in tatters, but the oldest inhabitant of 4 Equity Court has no use for the word 'retirement'.

There's a new wind blowing in this dazzling collection of new Rumpole stories: for the first time Rumpole finds himself appearing for an asylum-seeker at the Appeals Tribunal and, worst of all, his chambers have become a smoke-free zone.

Has Rumpole hung up his wig for good? Can it be? Yes, the beloved barrister is now retired (though far from retiring) and gently ripening to a rosy hue in the Florida sunshine. But a colleague's casual request for advice on a difficult case sends him winging back across the Atlantic, and before he's through, our hero will come up against a fanatical religious cult and a mysterious letter written in blood.

The brilliant Bailey hack recalls some of his most extraordinary cases, including several deliciously funny courtroom spars with his arch-foe, the Mad Bull (aka Judge Roger Bullingham).

Christmas Day in a chilly Norfolk village and a trip to the pantomime provide Horace Rumpole with the opportunity to solve a crime involving a duplicitous dame and to indulge in a little seasonal, charitable blackmail.

The irrepressible, audacious defence barrister Horace Rumpole continues to juggle the vagaries of the law, the ambiguities of crime, and the contradictions of the human heart. The much loved stories were adapted from his scripts for the hugely popular TV series of the same name.

We last left Rumpole in his hospital bed after his sudden collapse in court. Now our hero finds himself in the Primrose Path nursing home - or a hospice as he persists in describing it. Things aren't looking good for Rumpole - until suddenly he begins to sense there's something wrong with the place, and all his intelligence and formidable insight into human behaviour come to the fore again.

Life couldn't be better for Lucinda Purefoy. Granted, it's a little embarrassing, her father being the Bishop of Aldershot, but she's got a steady boyfriend, a degree in social sciences from Manchester University, and the offer of a job in advertising. With all that, she felt she should "pay back her debt to society" and "do a little good in the world".

ASBOs may be the pride and joy of New Labour, but they don't cut much ice with Horace Rumpole - he takes the old-fashioned view that if anyone is going to be threatened with a restriction of their liberty then some form of legal proceeding ought to be gone through first. When one of the Timson children is given an ASBO for playing football in the street, Rumpole soon realizes something fishy is going on.

'Rumpole and the Way Through the Woods': Rumpole makes friends with a dog named Sir Lancelot and finds himself defending a hunt saboteur who claims to be guilty of murder. 'Rumpole for the Prosecution': Rumpole’s personal commandment is ‘Thou Shalt Not Prosecute’ - but he breaks this rule to take on a private prosecution brought by a dead girl’s father. However, an obscure literary reference and a piece of evidence that doesn’t fit bring his defender’s instincts to the fore....

Three thrilling full-cast dramas starring Julian Rhind-Tutt as the irrepressible Horace Rumpole. For 15 years, Rumpole has fought, won and occasionally lost myriad cases - and fallen in and out of love with both wife Hilda and ‘the Portia of our Chambers’, Phillida Erskine-Brown. These three episodes leave us guessing until the very end - will Rumpole finally leave ‘She Who Must be Obeyed’ for Phillida?

Throughout John Mortimer's career, he established profound friendships with people accused of various crimes. He also indulged his passion for writing, penning Paradise Postponed and a series of stories about Rumpole, for whom he was often mistaken. With wit, wisdom and tenderness, he has written the story of his life.