Crown Court (TV series)

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Crown Court
Format	Legal drama
Starring	John Barron William Mervyn John Alkin Bernard Gallagher Dorothy Vernon Peter Wheeler
Opening theme	Sinfonietta by Janacek, 4th movement
Ending theme	Distant Hills by the Simon Park Orchestra, composed by Cliff Twemlow
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	11
No. of episodes	879
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Granada Television
Picture format	1.33 : 1 / colour
Audio format	monoaural
Original run	11th October 1972 – 29th March 1984
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Crown Court was an ITV afternoon television courtroom drama that started in 1972, which was the same year the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in England and Wales. The last episodes aired in late March 1984.^[1]

A court case in the Crown Court of the fictional town of Fulchester (coincidentally a town of the same name was the primary setting for many of the cartoon strips from the comic Viz) would typically be played out over three weekdays in half-hour episodes although for a short period complete stories were shown on Saturday evenings and occasionally cases would occupy two or even one episode. Although those involved in the case were actors, the jury was made up of members of the general public from the local Granada Television area taken from the electoral register and eligible for real jury service: it was this jury alone which decided the verdict. Indeed, production publicity of the time stated that, for many of the scripts, two endings were written and rehearsed to cope with the jury's independent decision which was delivered for the first time, as in a real court case, when the foreman was asked by the actor playing the judge, while the programme's recording progressed. However, the course of some cases would lead the jury being directed to return "not guilty" verdicts.

Unlike some other legal dramas the cases in Crown Court were presented from a relatively neutral point of view rather from the perspective of any particular party and the action was confined to the courtroom itself with occasional brief glimpses of waiting area outside the courtroom. The stories features a wide variety of criminal charges and also some civil cases such as libel, insurance or copyright claims.

The series was occasionally humorous and was even capable of self-parody: the 1977 story An Upward Fall, written by absurdist playwright N.F. Simpson, was played for laughs. In this bizarre case, an old people's home was built atop a cliff some 3000 feet high but had its only lavatories located at the foot of the cliff.

Regulars included John Barron and William Mervyn as judges, John Alkin, Bernard Gallagher, Dorothy Vernon, Richard Wilson and William Simons as barristers.

Future famous names to appear on the show included Eleanor Bron, Warren Clarke, Tom Conti, Brian Cox, Michael Elphick, Sheila Fearn, Brenda Fricker, Derek Griffiths, Nigel Havers, Bernard Hill, Peter Jeffrey, Maureen Lipman, Ben Kingsley, Ian Marter, T. P. McKenna, Mark McManus, Vivien Merchant, Geraldine Newman, Judy Parfitt, Robert Powell, Peter Sallis, Juliet Stevenson, Mary Wimbush, Michael Sheard and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star, Mark Wing-Davey, Mary Miller.

Its writers included N. F. Simpson, John Godber, Cathy Come Home writer Jeremy Sandford, and the New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh

Contents 1 Production and archive details 2 Repeats and commercial availability 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Production and archive details

• Although the (non-speaking) jury members were indeed members of the general public, the foreman of the jury would have a small speaking role to deliver their verdict. For this reason the part of the foreman had to be played by a professional actor to stay within the rules imposed on Granada by the actors' union Equity.
• All episodes of a story would be recorded on the same day.
• The show was recorded in studio two, the largest studio at Granada Television. In an effort to make the replica court room appear as realistic as possible to the 'jury' each episode was recorded as being 'live', with retakes kept to an absolute minimum. Cameras (which at the time of production were large and cumbersome and required an operator to be present) were placed at strategic points and kept static, thus reducing any possible distraction caused by production requirements.
• The jury were given only 30 minutes to reach their verdict.^[2]
• Episodes included a brief voice-over narration at the beginning to either introduce the context of the case (for the first episode of a story) or to summarise the events of the case so far (for the later episodes of a story).
• Early episodes of the series took the case name as the episode title, e.g. "Lieberman v Savage" (transmitted 18th - 20th October 1972) and "Regina v Lord" (25th - 27th October 1972). After the first eight cases, a short description of the issues in the case was added to the episode titles, such as "Criminal Libel: Regina v Maitland" (27th to 29th December 1972) and "A Public Mischief: Regina v Baker And Crawley" (31st January - 2nd February 1973). This style persisted until "Regina v Marlow: Freakout" (7th to 9th March 1973); following these episodes the case title was dropped and episode titles became purely descriptive and remained so until the show ended in 1984.
• One story, "Heart To Heart", was intended for transmission from 15th to 17th April 1979 but was postponed and replaced by a repeat of "A Ladies' Man" (originally broadcast 15th to 17th February 1977). The postponed episodes were never broadcast as part of the original run of "Crown Court".
• All episodes of "Crown Court" exist in PAL colour as originally transmitted, including the postponed "Heart To Heart".^[1][3]
• As an aside, but with an ironic twist, the closing theme tune is entitled, "Distant Hills" - the presumed view of a prisoner. "Distant Hills" was the 'b' side of the 1973 UK number 1 hit by the Simon Park Orchestra, Eye Level.
• Joan Hickson, later to be well-known for her portrayal of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, appeared as the defendant in a story written by another of the 'Queens of Crime' Ngaio Marsh.
• Robin Bailey and Peter Blythe played judges and barristers respectively in both Crown Court and Rumpole of the Bailey

[edit] Repeats and commercial availability

• As of April 2008, UK Satellite channel Red TV is showing episodes of Crown Court, apparently uncut, in blocks of up to six consecutive episodes.
• Satellite channel Granada Plus repeated a number of episodes in the mid-1990s.
• Despite the almost full archive of broadcast quality episodes the series has never been repeated on ITV/ITV 1 since the late 1980's.
• The story "The Eleventh Commandment" was included as an extra on Network DVD's 2007 release of The Sandbaggers Season 3 as it featured lead actor Roy Marsden in a role.
• Similarly the Network DVD release of The XYY Man included the Crown Court story "An Evil Influence" (15th to 17th October 1975) as an extra feature; Stephen Yardley, star of "The XYY Man" plays the role of Dr Thanet, a libel plaintiff in the Crown Court.
• Network DVD have started to release the series on Home DVD in boxsets of 13 stories.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Water Cooler Moments - Crown Court
• Screenonline - Crown Court:(1972-1984)
• Crown Court at the Internet Movie Database