Crown Court

Talking Pictures TV

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CROWN Court. To those of a certain vintage, these two little words have the power of Proust’s madeleine, or its Scottish equivalent, a jeely piece, to send the mind racing back in time, in this case to the 1970s.

Episodes of the classic courtroom drama made by Granada TV have surfaced occasionally on television and on DVD since the show ended in 1984. In 2017 there was an attempt at a revival with Rob Rinder as the judge.

Nothing stuck, however, much to the dismay of fans.

Now the free to air digital channel, Talking Pictures, is showing all 879 episodes of Crown Court screened from 1972.

The run began today with a rare civil case for the show. In Simpson v Rudkin General Hospital Management Board a widow was suing a hospital for negligence.

Mr Arthur John Simpson, 42, a chartered accountant, had been involved in a minor car accident. He was taken to hospital with a head injury and X-rayed.

Although a nurse told him to lie down and wait for the diagnosis, Mr Simpson left the premises and was later found collapsed in the street. He later died. Was he to blame for walking out, or was the hospital at fault for not watching him?

The attitudes were very much of their time, sometimes to comic effect. The junior barrister who told a witness that “a resentful woman doesn’t even know when she’s lying” could have come straight from one of Harry Enfield’s “Women, know thy place” skits.

Then there was Mrs Simpson, wearing a hat as she took the stand. Her barrister ran through the household accounts: Mr Simpson earned £9000 a year, had a mortgage of £1000 annually and gave his wife £30 a week for housekeeping. Needless to say this was 1972.

While there were no big names in the episode, Crown Court became famous as the drama that gave many actors their break.

Alumni include former Doctor Who Peter Capaldi, playing a pink-haired punk, Richard Wilson and Maureen Lipman (Coronation Street), both appeared as QCs, Brian Cox, Robert Powell, Tom Conti, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent and Gregor Fisher.

Of the rest, Ben Kingsley would go on to become an Oscar-winning knight of the realm. Another Crown Court old boy, Mark McManus, stayed with law and order, becoming a certain DCI Jim Taggart.

Back in court, an expert witness had taken the stand. Since the cameras were fixed in position there was no seamless transition from one speaker to another. Instead, the camera had to swoop in for close-ups, Acorn Antiques-style.

Crown Court, set in the fictional town of Fulchester, was filmed at Granada in Manchester.

Each half hour episode was an all actor affair save for the members of the jury who were members of the public drawn from the electoral register or approached outside the studios.

Cases were given three days, at the end of which the jury would deliver its verdict within 30 minutes. Any Justice Secretary today would kill for that kind of efficency.

Alas for Crown Court, time moved on and left it behind. In its place came the likes of Rumpole, Kavanagh QC, Ally McBeal and The Good Fight. While the show can’t hope to match any of these, its back to basics style still has a certain charm.

Showing 2.30pm on Monday, Thursday, Friday, free to air on Virgin 445, Freesat 306, Freeview or YouView 82, Sky channel 328