Product Description

Today’s legal minds could take a lesson or two from Horace Rumpole, one of the most colorful characters ever to approach the bench. Rumpole also maneuvers behind the scenes, using his brilliant mind and sly sense of humor to make his case. Stylishly played by Leo McKern, he throws the courtroom into an uproar for twenty episodes that seamlessly blend comedy, mystery, and drama.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12780 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-12-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 600 minutes

Amazon.com
Before there was Quincy and The Practice, there was Rumpole. Rumpole of the Bailey is, quite simply, one of the finest television series, and it has served as a model for all law dramas that followed it. Edgy and satirical, Rumpole is based on John Mortimer's books of the same name. Esteemed actor Leo McKern portrays the antihero Rumpole, a determined and committed criminal defense barrister whose clients have included three generations of the Timson family, among others, at the Old Bailey (criminal court). As champion of the downtrodden, the self-righteous Rumpole loves to get in trouble with his wife, his peers, the head of chambers, and judges, to name but a few. A connoisseur of Wordsworth, cigars, and cheap liquor, McKern's usually disheveled Rumpole belies the character's dry sense of humor and astute skill as a barrister. His wife, the upwardly mobile Hilda, is played by Peggy Thorpe-Bates, known for her Miss Toliver in Alcatraz Island, and Justice Sir Guthrie Fetherston is played by Peter Bowles, known for his Richard DeVere in TV's To the Manor Born.

This four-disc set includes all 12 episodes from seasons 3 and 4. Typical of British drama, production values are low, while the caliber of scriptwriting and acting is unsurpassed. A rare example of a television serial that is as appealing and engaging on its 10th viewing as it is on its first. --Erik Macki

Customer Reviews

A&E's Packaging People Could Use Some Help
I have been watching Rumpole on PBS for about 15 years and was pleased to buy this recent set from A&E Home Video. While the quality of the video on these DVDs is quite good, and they are worth owning, I am disappointed with the sloppy job on the packaging. Each box has descriptions of three episodes with photos that don't match up. It's as though the people putting them together were unfamiliar with which photo went with which episode.

The written descriptions themselves are worse. One of the DVD boxes refers to Rumpole as an "embattled Bailey", the writer apparently not realizing that the "Bailey" in the series' title refers to London's Central Criminal Court, not its lawyers. Another of the descriptions on the boxes states that Rumpole's wife Hilda "takes an assist", whatever that means.

Of even more concern is that the on screen content in the DVDs contain at least one remarkable blunder. One episode (Rumpole and the Old, Old Story) has a scene selection menu chapter entitled PROSECUTING "COUNCIL" rather than PROSECUTING COUNSEL.

It's surprising enough that the people in charge of packaging this set are unfamilar with the Rumpole episodes, but how could they be so unfamiliar with the English language and be in this line of work? I hope A&E will improve its quality control and do a better job with any future Rumpole DVDs.

Finally, and most disturbing of all, these episodes have been edited to omit the old graphics that were part of them at the half-way point when they were broadcast on British television and later PBS. Originally, a graphic was displayed at the end of the first half that stated "End of Part One", shortly followed by a graphic that stated "Part Two". In removing these graphics, A&E has chopped out entire scenes around them. In the Old, Old Story, for example, the scene in which Rumpole is shocked to see Hilda sitting next to the judge on the bench is gone. In the Blind Tasting, the scene in which Liz Probert drives Rumpole to Brixton and theorizes about whether the defendant comes from a broken home is also gone. Their absence is made all the more noticeable by the characters' subsequent references to the missing events. Other episodes have similar edits. One edit is so sloppy, part two begins in mid conversation between an attorney and a witness on the stand. Why A&E had to edit these episodes at all is puzzling enough but I am more puzzled by how poorly the edits were carried out. I'm used to getting extra scenes when I buy a DVD, not fewer scenes than are available when I watch the same episodes on television.

In short, I love the Rumpole episodes but this particular incarnation has to be the one of the most disappointing DVD sets I have seen of any film or television program. I want to recommend them but can't overlook the awful job A&E has done with them. Unless series 5 and 6 are a vast improvement, you might wish to consider getting a multi-region DVD player and trying the UK Rumpole DVDs available through Amazon's UK site.

Civilized entertainment
If you saw at least some of the series and you wonder if a set is worth springing for, I think it is.

Leo McKern is unfailingly perfect as the idealistic libertarian tempered by a weathered cynicism of legal and government machinations. The other actors are usually quite good, though the roles are somtimes a bit caricaturish. In a sense, though, the caricatures are apt since they reveal attorneys and judges as priggish hypocrites they so commonly are. Rumpole recognizes that we are victims of these fools that he suffers not so gladly. Unlike most people, he is neither snowed by nor kowtows to the pretensions of the the legal system. He does, though, care a great deal about the ideals of justice that are given little more than lip service in reality.

The stories are not brilliant, but they are consistent and sufficiently good to showcase McKern. There are two reasons I've bought the DVDs. The first is McKern, and the second is a sense of civility one experiences watching Rumpole. TV is so relentlessly moronic that one gasps for the fresh air that a series like this affords. It's striking how TV content -- including that provided on so-called public television -- has deteriorated since Rumpole first ran. Long gone are the days of I, Claudius, The Singing Detective, and Sherlock Holmes. Now the offerings of Masterpiece Theater and Mystery! are often embarassingly bad. Rumpole is a welcome respite.

why no closed captioning or subtitles?
Would have given the set 5 stars, but for the lack of closed captioning/subtitles. I don't know why Amazon says this set is closed captioned when it isn't. It makes me glad I have season 1 & 2 from when they were originally released, rather than the A&E re-release, as that was captioned. Shame on A&E for not doing this for deaf/hearing impaired people!