Trivia / Rumpole of the Bailey

• The Cast Showoff: Claude Erskine-Brown fancies himself a wine connoisseur ("Rumpole and the Blind Tasting"). Julian Curry (who plays Erskine-Brown) was also a noted wine expert.
• Channel Hop: After the Play for Today episode, the producer pitched the idea of proper series to The BBC. Originally they agreed, but then a new Head of Drama came along who was not interested in a full time Rumpole series. The producer then pitched it to ITV's Head of Drama, Verity Lambert, who saw the potential and picked it up instead.
• Died During Production: John Mortimer passed away just as he began writing a new Rumpole story, "Rumpole and the Brave New World".
• Fake American: Most of the American characters on the show were not played by Americans; their American Accents tended to be a bit on the "meh" side, although the one playing young Nick Rumpole's American wife had an extremely bad case of Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping.
• Fake Brit: Most notably, Australian Leo McKern as the emphatically English Rumpole. Of course, McKern had been living in England since 1946, so it's not quite that bad; his English accent was impeccable.
• I Am Not Spock: While Leo McKern enjoyed playing Rumpole, he was reportedly dismayed with being so identified with the character that his performances in other works were overlooked.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Liz Probert. In Series 4, she was played by Samantha Bond, then by Abigail McKern for the rest of the show's run
  • Hilda Rumpole. In the pilot she was played by Joyce Heron, then Peggy Thorpe-Bates for the first three series (including Rumpole's Return), and after she retired Marion Mathie played her for the rest of the run.
  • Mr. Bernard. In the first series he was played Edward de Souz, then he was replaced by Dennis Lill (Inspector Bradstreet from the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes show) for the rest of the run.
  • None of the TV cast reprised their roles for any of the BBC Radio 4 dramas. Notable radio Rumpoles include Maurice Denham who played him in a 13 part series in the 1980's called Rumpole: The Splendours and Miseries of an Old Bailey Hack. In the first decade of the 2000's Timothy West played Rumpole in a series of adaptations based on John Mortimer's more recent stories (four of which were released as an audiobook under the umbrella title Rumpole and the Primrose Path), then the series switched to focus on a younger Rumpole played by Benedict Cumberbatch, after John Mortimer passed away.
  • Both Series 3, Episode 4 ("Rumpole and the Female of the Species") and Series 5, Episode 4 ("Rumpole and the Tap End") feature Tony Timson and his wife April. However, they are played by such completely different actors and portrayed in such completely different ways that you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's supposed to be two Timson couples whose names happen to by Tony and April.
• Real-Life Relative: The second Liz Probert, Abigail McKern — a.k.a. the daughter of Rumpole himself, Leo McKern.
• Star-Making Role: Leo McKern had been a veteran character actor for decades appearing in a diverse range of works such as A Man for All Seasons on stage as the Common Man and later Cromwell in the 1966 film adaptation, Thomas Ryan the publican in Ryan's Daughter, Clang in Help! with The Beatles, and the most famous Number 2 in The Prisoner. But it was his role of Rumpole that put him firmly in the public mind.
• Write Who You Know: John Mortimer has said that Rumpole is not an Author Avatar (Mortimer was a QC) but all the characters are composites of people that he knew throughout his time at the Bar.

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