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ACTION
TV ONLINE EPISODE GUIDE
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Director : Cyril Coke Script : Allan Prior Publicity : Actor Michael Elwyn, who plays an aristocratic Lake District solicitor in BBC-2's new series, has been talking to a couple of real-life country solicitors to get the feel of the part. For Radio Times Mike Bygrave reports on How Michael Got His Brief: "Now look, Michael," Wil Edwards addresses Michael Elwyn, the star of BBC-2's The Carnforth Practice. I"ve got a good trick for you. If you don't believe a witness, roll your eyes. A number of judges do it, because facial expressions don't go on the record and you can't win an appeal on them. And remember, this is your court. Magistrates may come and go, but you belong here. You know you can do anything you want. Some advocates take copious notes, but I don't really think that would be your style. You would probably have your feet up and look half-asleep - and keep rolling those eyes. Do you know the difference between a competent advocate and a great one? A competent advocate works in one style - he's aggressive or learned or charming But a great advocate works in a whole range of styles, and he chooses and adopts the right one for each day of the case". "Solicitors in the country are sort of civilian confessors. In London, solicitors deal with business, in the country with people": No mistaking Wil Edwards' profession from those fluid Welsh tones - or his equally fluid performances at the wheel of his Lancia and with his after-dinner brandy. As well as being Labour MP for Merioneth up until the last election, he works as a country solicitor, and he's the legal advisor for the new BBC-2 series about an aristocratic solicitor. "You'd have a job finding any solicitors who were actual aristocrats," says Michael Elwyn who plays the Honourable Greville Carnforth, "but that's dramatic licence. Solicitors do tend to come from the upper-middle class. Both Wil and I are of good Welsh stock and we both wanted to be barristers, but acting - and in his case, politics - intervened. "My father's a clergyman and my mother's a magistrate so I've some idea of what it's like to be a figurehead in a closed community. They all know you before you know them. But there's no real class distinction: everybody mixes at all levels". "In a small country practice, you're your own master. It's a very pleasant life. I wouldn't swap it for the rat-race at any price": To get the feel of his part, Michael spent hours talking to both Wil Edwards and to Peter Thomson, a solicitor from Kendal in the Lake District. Thomson is a tall, etiolated man with a body that swiftly adopts the lounging posture, hands in pockets, of the countryman. He comes from a long line of country lawyers. His father, both his grandfathers and an uncle were solicitors before him. In the Lake District, where nothing changes faster or more dramatically than the weather - looming mist and driving rain can envelop a lake for an hour and suddenly clear to a scouring wind and bright sun - it's easy to believe time stands still. But both Thomson and Edwards lament the decline of the all-round lawyer. "Our forefathers were considered influential people because they knew a little bit more about everything than the average man. Now we're failing to come to terms with the new body of law that's grown up - social security, tax laws and the like," says Wil Edwards. Peter Thomson has an even more poignant sense of how rural society has contracted: "This area was full of genuine `characters' before the First World War. There was a chap called Herbert John who had this little pal called Eddie and they used to go driving. `Eddie, hast ever driven through a hedge?' `No, Herbert John' `Hold tight, then'. And they drove through a hedge and round the field, back through the hedge and off up the road again. Another time they came to a railway station. `Eddie, hast ever driven round a station?'. And off up the platform they went. These were all highly individualistic people, who didn't give a damn for anybody. There's no place for them in the modern world. Try doing it now and you'd have the full force of the law on you". "Our forefathers were considered influential people because they knew a little bit more about everything than the average man". Neither Thomson nor Edwards would swap the country life for a town practice, even though they might make twice the money working for a city firm. "If you were acting for a big company," says Edwards, "you wouldn't meet a single person. They'd telephone you with instructions. In town, it's the firm's reputation that matters. In the country, it's your own". Thomas agrees: "I remember one client of my father's, who came in and said her husband had just died. My father made the appropriate noises, but she said `Well, what I've come for is this - do you think I should re-marry?'. We're looked upon as confessors, in other words". "I've some idea of what it's like to be a figurehead in a closed community. Everybody knows you before you know them". (Radio Times, April 18, 1974 - Article by Mike Bygrave). Cast : Leonard Rossiter (Aaros Boswell), David Daker (The Tanker Driver), Cyril Varley (The Passer-By), Arthur White (Sergeant Armstrong), Tom Chadbon (Police Constable Henderson), Caroline Whitaker (Angela), Pamela Salem (Doctor Helen Rheinman), Frank Duncan (The Magistrate) and John Laurimore (The Land Lord). Synopsis : While trying to help another "Aristocrat" - a full-blooded Romany - The Honourable Greville Carnforth's identification with him leads to a dangerous encounter. Notes : Episodes were originally transmitted 10:00pm to 10:50pm on BBC 2.
Director : Cyril Coke Script : Donald Bull Cast : Leonard Rossiter (Aaros Boswell), Maurice Denham (Ernest Railton), Alan Troy (The Dog Owner), Carrie Kirstein (Yvonne), John Devaut (The Clerk Of The Court), Brian Gilbert (Tim), Caroline Whitaker (Angela), Sylvia Coleridge (Miss Railton), Arnold Locke (Boyle), Terence Hardiman (James Railton) and Ronald Markham (Parson). Synopsis : A magistrate of the highest integrity is known to be guilty of a crime. Where do Greville Carnforth's loyalties lie?
Director : Christopher Barry Script : Pat Hooker Cast : Wendy Williams (Lydia Rogers), Anthony Woodruff (John Rogers), Colin Baker (Bob Anderson), Gabrielle Hamilton (Miss Saunders), Dennis Edwards (Mr Prentiss), Robert McBain (Doctor Stanton), Janice Anthony (The Nurse), Helen Worth (Ann Pollock), Brian Gilbert (Tim), Freda Dowie (Mrs Pollock), Allan McClelland (Father Martin) and Sheila Burrell (Martha Webb). Synopsis : A case is mystifying Doctor Helen Rheinman; a young girl is healthy but incapable of walking. Talking it over with the Carnforth family, Lady Mary says, "She sounds as if she's bewitched".
Director : Christopher Barry Script : Colin Morris Cast : John Dunbar (The Coroner's Officer), Ray Mort (George Hale), George Innes (Freddie), Roger Ostime (The Pathologist), Julian Somers (Doctor Ivan), Frank Forsyth (The Foreman Of The Jury), Maryann Turner (The Mother), Perry Balfour (The Son), Caroline Whitaker (Angela), Freda Bamford (Mrs Palfrey), Brian Gilbert (Tim), Victor Brooks (John Nash), Joanna Ross (The Groom), Peter Lawrence (Tom), Carolyn Hudson (The Publican), Graham Ashley (Chief Inspector Haldon), Gordon Griffin (The Detective Constable), Ann Windsor (Mrs Roberts), Edgar Wreford (The Defending Counsel), Peter Welch (The Prosecuting Counsel) and Christopher Banks (The Judge). Synopsis : A tenant on the Carnforth estate gets drunk, boasts that he killed his wife and has committed the perfect murder.
Director : Colin Cant Script : Eric Pringle Cast : Campbell Singer (Colonel Nigel Douglas), Harry Markham (Norman Coniston), Wendy Gifford (Catherine Douglas), Daphne Oxenford (Marion Douglas), Caroline Whitaker (Angela), Des Flanagan (The Tourist), Rita Howard (The Tourist's Wife), Brian Gilbert (Tim), Hugh Morton (The Magistrate), John Devaut (The Clerk Of The Court), Martin Scott (The Police Constable) and John Stuart (The Judge). Synopsis : Greville is caught in the fire of a highly individualistic shepherd bent on pulling down the preserved world of a retired Colonel.
Director : Christopher Barry Script : Mervyn Haisman Cast : Pamela Brown (Nancy Burton), David Collings (Adam Burton), Edmund Bailey (Willie), Brian Gilbert (Tim), Caroline Whitaker (Angela), Aimee Delamain (Lady Mary), Patrick Godfrey (Nicholas Ashby), Michael O'Hagan (The First Attendant), Anthony Benson (The Second Attendant) and George Waring (George). Synopsis : Greville wonders whether a client might be his half-brother, but the reticence of their respective mothers, and the handicap of the client, make it impossible to learn the truth. |
The series was devised and created by Colin Morris and Diane Campbell. The series was produced by Colin Morris.
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