The Verdict
Nov. 20th, 2006 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gervase_fenWell, I've spent the last four days looking after cats and rabbit at my Mum and Dad's, while they meet prospective Spanish in-laws. The weather outside has been unpleasant enough to keep me indoors most of the time, apart from a lunch date to compare notes with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unsworth.
I've spent more time than I planned to watching Sky Channel 215, aka legaltv.co.uk - home now to non-stop repeats of "Crown Court" circa 1973. For people of a certain age, the theme music alone (both opening and closing) evokes memories of an unscheduled break from school.
There are interesting names in the credits - stories by David Fisher and Ian Curteis, John Barron is the presiding judge and an unfeasibly young looking John Flanagan is the leading QC, alongside Bernard Gallagher and Ian Marter. And produced for Granada by Jonathan Powell, who later went on to do so much for Doctor Who in the 80s.
It's a very... slow show, not originally designed to be viewed back-to-back in quantity (e.g. lots of recaps and re-expositions in each three episode serial). The final verdicts of guilty/not guilty are (realistically?) anti-climatic - tossed off as an afterthought in the final minutes, with no "prisoner at the bar..." type speeches from the judge.
There is something compelling about its austerity - the drama rarely ever moves outside of the cramped court-room set, there's no incidental music, and minor fluffed line readings are left in. The writers occasionally put in a sly joke or two. In Peter Wildbloode's "30,000 Pieces of Silver" Robert Powell is asked to explain to the presiding judge what he means by "Progressive Rock". (I can't say that I was convinced by his definition - "rhythmic beats with an underlying melody of Afro-cuban origins").
Apparently www.legaltv.co.uk has a streaming service, so, depending on insomnia, I may catch up with their weekend omnibus editions when I'm back at the flat.
unsworth.I've spent more time than I planned to watching Sky Channel 215, aka legaltv.co.uk - home now to non-stop repeats of "Crown Court" circa 1973. For people of a certain age, the theme music alone (both opening and closing) evokes memories of an unscheduled break from school.
There are interesting names in the credits - stories by David Fisher and Ian Curteis, John Barron is the presiding judge and an unfeasibly young looking John Flanagan is the leading QC, alongside Bernard Gallagher and Ian Marter. And produced for Granada by Jonathan Powell, who later went on to do so much for Doctor Who in the 80s.
It's a very... slow show, not originally designed to be viewed back-to-back in quantity (e.g. lots of recaps and re-expositions in each three episode serial). The final verdicts of guilty/not guilty are (realistically?) anti-climatic - tossed off as an afterthought in the final minutes, with no "prisoner at the bar..." type speeches from the judge.
There is something compelling about its austerity - the drama rarely ever moves outside of the cramped court-room set, there's no incidental music, and minor fluffed line readings are left in. The writers occasionally put in a sly joke or two. In Peter Wildbloode's "30,000 Pieces of Silver" Robert Powell is asked to explain to the presiding judge what he means by "Progressive Rock". (I can't say that I was convinced by his definition - "rhythmic beats with an underlying melody of Afro-cuban origins").
Apparently www.legaltv.co.uk has a streaming service, so, depending on insomnia, I may catch up with their weekend omnibus editions when I'm back at the flat.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 01:35 am (UTC)