Follow TV Tropes

Following

Trivia / Law & Order: UK

Go To

  • Actor Leaves, Character Dies: Matt Devlin was killed in a drive-by shooting when actor Jamie Bamber finished his contract; at the time he was doing a pilot for a US show which was not ordered to series. The writers probably wanted to kill off a major character to provide good drama, so it's a pretty classic example of Reason #1 for this trope — the following episode was one of the series best as the team struggled to deal with their grief while doing their best to ensure that his killer was brought to justice.
  • Actor-Shared Background: Matt Devlin is of Irish ancestry, just like Jamie Bamber.
  • Creator's Favorite Episode: Dick Wolf based episodes of the show off his favorite from the original series.
  • Corpsing: In-and-out of universe. Matt struggles not to laugh at a witness' idiotic comment and eventually does lose it, even turning away from the camera to compose himself, indicating that it's Jamie Bamber himself cracking up, especially since the straight-faced Ronnie continues questioning the witness as if nothing has happened. Ironic, as it's Bradley Walsh who has the comedic background.
  • Deleted Scene: There are slight differences in what's aired on ITV and what's aired on BBC America because of this. Full episodes can be found on the internet or the DVDs.
  • Distanced from Current Events: Because its plot bore considerable similarities to a Real Life murder that occurred the day before it was scheduled to air, the Series 8 finale "Repeat To Fade" was pulled from the schedule and replaced with a Season 5 repeat. It took nearly a month for it to be rescheduled.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Walsh, to simulate Brooks' sugar craving acquired after he gave up alcohol, gained two stone in weight.
  • Fake Irish: Subverted. Jamie Bamber was born in London, but has Irish ancestry and citizenship thanks to his mother. Matt reveals his Irish heritage to a young prostitute he's interrogating and states that during his rookie year's he was "called mick for the first 6 months because my family are Irish", but his background might be slightly different—in an interview, Bamber described Matt as being from "an immigrant Irish family" indicating that he was born in Ireland and then emigrated to England.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: The special features of the Season 2 DVD include an 8-minute gag reel.
  • Irony as She Is Cast: Matt butchering the French language when trying to talk to a witness when in Real Life, Jamie Bamber speaks excellent French (aside from an early childhood spent in Paris, it's one of two languages, the other being Italian, that he studied for his Modern Language degree).
    • James Steel, who is occasionally implied to be a womanizer and clearly has feelings for Alesha, is played by Ben Daniels, who is gay.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: For the longest time, only Season 1 (Series 1 & 2) and Season 2 (Series 3 & 4) were released on DVD in the US while series 1-7 were released on DVD in the UK, meaning anyone in Region 1 needed to purchase a universal DVD player to watch Season 3 (Series 5 & 6) and half of Season 4 (Series 7) because the other half, Series 8, was never released on DVD, forcing fans in the UK and US to scour the internet for the remaining episodes. Thankfully, at least in the US, all of Series 1-8 are available on Amazon Prime note .
  • Playing Against Type: Walsh is a well-known comedic actor and game show host who was thoroughly impressive as the world-weary, Deadpan Snarker Brooks.
  • Recursive Import: Has begun airing on BBC America.
  • Recycled Script: All of the scripts are based various episodes of the Mothership (in no particular order), though certain episodes are more “freely adapted” than others.
  • Short Run in Peru: Episodes 8 to 13 of Season 1 had already aired in Canada.
  • Star-Making Role: While not his first part, the role of Jamal Clarkson is arguably what put John Boyega on the map.
  • Theme Music Abandonment: UK doesn't have a remix of the traditional Law & Order theme, though it must be said, this show does have a fairly rousing theme of its very own.
  • Underage Casting: Martin Jarvis plays Natalie Chandler's father, but he's only nine years Harriet Walter's senior.
  • You Might Remember Me from...: Jamie Bamber (DS Matt Devlin) spent four years as heroic pilot Lee Adama on Battlestar Galactica. note 

Top