Rumpole of the Bailey, Set 2 - The Complete Seasons 3 & 4

Starring:Peter Whitaker, Samantha Bond, Edward de Souza, Robin Bailey, Ann Way, Derek Benfield, Eric Dodson, Bill Fraser
Director: Peter Hammond, Robert Knights, Jim Goddard, Herbert Wise, Tony Smith (III), John Gorrie, Mike Vardy, Michael Simpson, Robert Tronson, Donald McWhinnie, Derek Bennett, Rodney Bennett, Stuart Burge, Brian Farnham, Julian Amyes
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
"Every once in a while a character and an actor fit together so precisely that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other (Sean Connery and James Bond, Jeremy Brett and Sherlock Holmes).... McKern was made to fit the eccentric, irrepressibly snide barrister who is as 'lovable as a grumpy old panda.'" - The Wall Street Journal. Never plead guilty if you expect justice, ahem, to be served. And so comes another helping of inimitable RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY tales, where if crime doesn't exactly pay--it's at least a living. Enjoy more lovably dour wisdom from our old Bailey hack, who, between defending a variety of characters, from struggling artists to massage parlor entrepreneurs, puffs away at his damp cheroot while spouting passages from the Oxford Book of English Verse. The second and third seasons come replete with Horace Rumpole's brilliant defenses, his fondness for "plonk," his wonderfully askew wig, and his sly jabs at hypocrisy-not to mention those bloody upper-class nincompoops. At least "She Who Must Be Obeyed" is around to keep things in order.

System Requirements:

Runing Time 600 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE
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.

Product Description

"Every once in a while a character and an actor fit together so precisely that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other (Sean Connery and James Bond, Jeremy Brett and Sherlock Holmes).... McKern was made to fit the eccentric, irrepressibly snide barrister who is as 'lovable as a grumpy old panda.'" - The Wall Street Journal. Never plead guilty if you expect justice, ahem, to be served. And so comes another helping of inimitable RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY tales, where if crime doesn't exactly pay--it's at least a living. Enjoy more lovably dour wisdom from our old Bailey hack, who, between defending a variety of characters, from struggling artists to massage parlor entrepreneurs, puffs away at his damp cheroot while spouting passages from the Oxford Book of English Verse. The second and third seasons come replete with Horace Rumpole's brilliant defenses, his fondness for "plonk," his wonderfully askew wig, and his sly jabs at hypocrisy-not to mention those bloody upper-class nincompoops. At least "She Who Must Be Obeyed" is around to keep things in order.

System Requirements:

Runing Time 600 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

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.

Customer Reviews:

Rumpole of the Bailey, set 2, complete seasons 3 & 4.......2007-03-31

Very well done compilation of one of my favorite and long missed series. I also hve the 1&2 season set and have enjoyed them all over again. Glad this one and the other were finally available at at a reasonable price.

One of the Greats.......2007-03-01

Sit back and enjoy the life of English barrister Horace Rumpole, brilliantly played by Leo McKern, supported by an excellent cast. There's humor, often dark, and some suspense in a delightful package. If you enjoy intelligent television with a point of view, buy these DVDs and, as I said, sit back and enjoy.

Frank Scoblete: Author of Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution!

Rumpole Improves With Age.......2005-04-14

The 3rd and 4th series of Rumpole of the Bailey continue and improve on the fine tradition established by the first two series. Leo McKern remains utterly magnificent as the intrepid barrister who never pleads Guilty (although he does break that tradition once), the scourge of the pompous and the pettifoggers of his chambers at Equity Court in the Temple and in the courtrooms of the Old Bailey. He tackles a series of cases, many of them outside of London in various rural locales, and once at a military base in Germany. Whatever his milieu, Rumpole is always master of the situation.

These series have a larger number of women characters than the first two. Besides Phillida Trant Erskine-Brown, Rumpole's chambers also boast two female barristers-in-training: Fiona Allways, an upper-crust sort who seeks out Rumpole when her sister badly needs assistance; and my favorite among the minor characters, Liz Probert, the brilliant daughter of a left-wing Labour Party leader who joins Rumpole in championing the poor and oppressed (although they have considerably different views as to what sorts of people are included in that category.) There is also Hilda "She Who Must Be Obeyed" Rumpole, who is played by a different actress starting in the 4th series, but who remains as indomitable as ever.

There are some old favorites among the minor characters like Claude Erskine-Brown and the petty-thieving Timson clan. Guthrie Featherstone is now a judge, but he has been replaced as Head of chambers by "Soapy Sam" Ballard, a highly religious and insufferable twit who is a perfect foil for Rumpole.

Although these stories were filmed in the 1980s they remain fresh and funny, a breath of air tinged with the smoke of Rumpole's old cheroots and a splash of Chateau Thames Embankment.

A&E's Packaging People Could Use Some Help.......2005-02-08

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.

why no closed captioning or subtitles?.......2005-01-15

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!

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