Judge John Deed
Season One of the BBC criminal-trial show, JUDGE JOHN DEED, first aired in 2001 and has five more seasons for us to discover. Not shown in America, to the best of my knowledge, it is a law-heavy, well-written-and-acted, drama called by some the Anti-“Rumpole”. Some criticisms are never fully-explained, as “Rumpole of the Bailey” (1978-92), which starred the late Leo McKern as a liberal defender of those brought before the Queen’s Court, was a spot-on examination of the British court system. Ironically, one of the mainstays of that show, Jonathan Coy, is a regular on the DEED show, as a prosecutor for the State.
Star Martyn Shaw appears in all six seasons, as Judge John Deed. The Judge is an affable and handsome fellow, who knows the law, having risen as far as he has through the dint of high intelligence and hard work, not from having the benefit of inheriting a title or from having purchased it. The show plays hard on the class-structure conflicts, something American television or film rarely examines, it not being as pronounced here as it is in the United Kingdom.
The writing is certainly up-to-date, amusing and serious, but there does seem to be an extreme oddity in the System wherein a judge may date a defense attorney without complication, fetching or not. Very odd, indeed.
Still, the chance to learn about another’s law-system is always rewarding, provided the writers are scrupulous about their research. At any rate, some wonderful actors support Shaw, including the aforementioned Mr. Coy, Jenny Seagrove as Jo Mills, the aforesaid defense barrister, and Simon Chandler as a rotten-to-the-core British bureaucrat and snob, and Donald Sinden as Deed’s former father-in-law, one who looks down on those who have climbed the ladder of success from humbler beginnings than the Tory/Republican.
Created, written and produced by G.F. Newman and directed by Alrick Riles, Mary McMurray, Jonny Campbell and Jane Powell, the five episode DVD include the pilot, “Exacting Justice,” followed by “Rough Justice,” “Duty of Care,” “Appropriate Response,” and “Hidden Agenda.” All the storylines deal with criminal cases of wife-beating, murder, corporate manslaughter and possible mercy killing – what every civilized society demands of its unlawful citizens.
This is a sobering, rather than thrilling, examination of the law, and as such deserves our attention.