Rumpole of the Bailey Rumpole and the Children of the Devil

The mighty Rumpole is back for a final season of six episodes on PBS, and writer John Mortimer's Shakespeare-quoting, wine-guzzling English barrister is again in fine form. As played by the inimitable Leo McKern, the portly, pugnacious Horace Rumpole is one of the most memorable creations of British TV in the past decade. Addicts to the series will be in mourning when the sixth seg draws to a close.

The mighty Rumpole is back for a final season of six episodes on PBS, and writer John Mortimer‘s Shakespeare-quoting, wine-guzzling English barrister is again in fine form. As played by the inimitable Leo McKern, the portly, pugnacious Horace Rumpole is one of the most memorable creations of British TV in the past decade. Addicts to the series will be in mourning when the sixth seg draws to a close.

Although part of PBS’ “Mystery” series, “Rumpole of the Bailey” has never been much concerned with solving mysteries in the conventional sense. With an excellent supporting cast of comic characters who inhabit the London law offices of No. 3 Equity Court, the series iscloser to a high-toned sitcom than to typical detective fiction.

She’s taken from her family by a creepily well-intentioned social worker (Joanna David), who puts her in a foster home. Rumpole is hired by the girl’s villainous family to free her, and in the process he takes on his former protege , prosecutor Liz Probert (Abigail McKern, Leo’s daughter), as well as the high-handed bureaucrats of family court and another of London’s old criminal families.

Rumpole does, in fact, “solve” the mystery of the story, such as it is. But the pleasure of the episode resides more in Rumpole’s give and take with his formidable wife, Hilda (Marion Mathie), better known as She Who Must Be Obeyed, and in the comic machinations of his legal colleagues at the office.

Will Sam Ballard (Peter Blythe), the priggish Head of Chambers, succeed in tossing Rumpole out of his office so he can be replaced by a socially well-connected young attorney? Or, in a later episode, will the pretentious half-wit Claude Erskine-Brown (Julian Curry) succeed in his efforts to be named a judge? Will the pretty new secretary (Camille Coduri) be allowed to wear a gold stud in her nose?

These and other pressing matters form the true heart of the series, and Rumpole, like the best of heroes, is ever triumphant. In the way of light entertainment, who could ask for more?