Showing results by author "John Mortimer" in All Categories

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute Horace Rumpole in this collection of cracking cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole.

Maurice Denham stars as John Mortimer's famous comic creation Rumpole of the Bailey. Defender of the underdog, friend of South London villains and scourge of QCs, much-loved barrister Horace Rumpole was first brought to life on television, and in 1980 BBC Radio 4 introduced him to the airwaves for a 13-episode series.

'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....

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).

Maggie Perowne is head of Old Masters at Klinsky's auction house in London. Ben Glazier is an art expert. Ben, not as young as he was, is inescapably in love with Maggie, but she has an unfortunate taste for such dubious men as the Hooray Henry in the wine department. Together Ben and Maggie form a crack team that blends integrity and professionalism with a keen eye for uncovering the mysterious circumstances surrounding priceless works of art.

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?

Timothy West takes on the role of Rumpole in these two thrilling dramas featuring the wily magician of the Old Bailey at his implacable best. Rumpole takes up the cause of young Bertie Timson, whose sole ‘crime’ seems to be playing football in the street. As he endeavours to defend our ancient freedoms, he becomes uneasy about exactly what his wife Hilda is up to in her continuing friendship with a high court judge.

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.

Affairs and assassinations. Conflict and chaos. Power and plots. The tumultuous Tudor period is one of the most iconic and fascinating chapters in British history. In these ten atmospheric dramas, we get a glimpse into the inner workings of Tudor England – and rediscover the key characters we have grown to love and hate. Featuring world-renowned actors, these gripping, historically accurate tales are packed with excitement.

In 'Rumpole and the Boy', Rumpole has recently concluded a blackmail case when he finds himself babysitting a small boy. Edmund turns out to have a keen interest in criminal cases and he throws some unexpected light on the case Rumpole has just tried. Bill Wallis reads this special seasonal story starring Horace Rumpole, scourge of all QCs and friend of the criminal classes.

Affectionately known as the Chekhov of Coldsands-on-Sea, Felix Morsom enjoys writing about the thwarted hopes of genteel lives. His own existence, he reflects, is comfortable if uneventful, except for the flirtatious moments he shares with his publicist, the delicious Brenda Bodkin. Until he meets Gavin and Miriam. Suddenly he is on the run from PROD, the Parental Rights and Obligations Department, as Miriam announces he is the father of her son Ian

Following the best-selling Summer of a Dormouse, Sir John Mortimer - playwright, novelist, octogenarian, and erstwhile QC - offers up more lessons in living and growing old disgracefully. What would we like to leave to our descendants? Not a third-rate painting or our PEPS, according to Sir John, but a love of Shakespeare, a taste for alcohol, the ability to defeat boredom, the importance of never locking the lavatory door, and so on.

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".

When Lewis Luby (Jeremy Irons) comes to, late at night in an Italian hospital, he finds himself lying under the monstrous big toe of God. Surely there has been some mistake: Luby, who has never for one moment believed in the immortality of the soul, cannot possibly be in heaven! John Mortimer had the idea for Mr Luby's Fear of Heaven when he first visited the Santa Maria della Scala hospital in Siena and saw patients lying in beds under ceilings decorated with 15th-Century frescoes depicting Heaven and Hell.

In this fascinating collection of interviews from the BBC radio and TV archive, John Mortimer, creator of the much-loved Rumpole of the Bailey, talks about his life and career as a barrister, screenwriter and novelist.