Crown Court (TV series)

Crown Court
Starring	John Barron William Mervyn John Alkin Bernard Gallagher Dorothy Vernon Peter Wheeler
Opening theme	Sinfonietta by Janáček, 4th movement
Ending theme	Distant Hills by the Simon Park Orchestra, composed by Cliff Twemlow
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	11
No. of episodes	879
Production
Running time	23 minutes
Original release
Network	Granada Television
Release	11 October 1972 – 29 March 1984

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 were broadcast in late March 1984.

A court case in the Crown Court of the fictional town of Fulchester 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 a single 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 3,000 feet (910 m) 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, Colin Firth, Brenda Fricker, Derek Griffiths, Nigel Havers, Bernard Hill, Peter Jeffrey, Maureen Lipman, Gregor Fisher, Ben Kingsley, Ian Marter, T. P. McKenna, Mark McManus, Vivien Merchant, Mary Miller, Geraldine Newman, Judy Parfitt, Robert Powell, Peter Sallis, Michael Sheard, Juliet Stevenson, Mary Wimbush and Mark Wing-Davey.

Its writers included Ian Curteis, David Fisher, Peter Wildeblood, John Godber, Ngaio Marsh, N. F. Simpson and Jeremy Sandford.

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; Crown Court shared the studio with University Challenge. Courtroom scenes in an episode of Nearest and Dearest, "A Pair Of Bloomers" (transmitted on 20 July 1972) were filmed using the Crown Court set; indeed, actor Malcolm Hebden, played a court clerk in this episode as well as in several early episodes of Crown Court.
• 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.
• 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 18—20 October 1972) and "Regina v Lord" (25—27 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" (27—29 December 1972) and "A Public Mischief: Regina v Baker And Crawley" (31 January—2 February 1973). This style persisted until "Regina v Marlow: Freakout" (7—9 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 15—17 April 1979 but was postponed and replaced by a repeat of "A Ladies' Man" (originally broadcast 15—17 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".
• 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

Repeats and commercial availability

• LegalTV and UK Satellite channel Red TV showed episodes from the series until December 2008 when Red TV rebranded itself from an entertainment channel to a music channel.
• 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 ITV1 since the late 1980s.
• The story "The Eleventh Commandment" was included as an extra on Network DVD's 2007 release of The Sandbaggers Series 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" (15—17 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.

External links

• Water Cooler Moments - Crown Court
• Screenonline - Crown Court:(1972-1984)
• Crown Court at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com