I know surprisingly little about John Mortimer, and can’t claim to have any special interest in him: I never read any of his books, and his apparently champagny socialism put me off him quite a bit, especially in the 1980s, when he seemed unaware of why anyone might be dissatisfied with what Labour was offering – a very “London” attitude, it seemed to me then as a northern youth.
But Rumpole is an important creation, and many, like me, must have first got ideas about law from watching Leo McKern in the role on telly. In my own case, a dose of that after a few years of watching Crown Court probably affected me for life. A major contribution to legal literature, Rumpole – and I take my hat off to his maker.
Boyd QC in my case Head of Legal – played by Michael Denison:
http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/adults/other/boydqc.htm
Rumpole has been described as the first Dickensian character of the TV age. A brilliant invention even if some of the plots are a bit thin – speaking of the books. Leo McKern ideally suited to the role, although I always had a sneaking admiration for Julian Curry’s Claude Erskine-Brown.