Crown Court

Format

A court case in the crown court of the fictional town of Fulchester (a name later adopted by Viz) would typically be played out over three afternoons in 25-minute episodes. The most frequent format was for the prosecution case to be presented in the first two episodes and the defence in the third, although there were some later, brief variations.

Unlike some other legal dramas, the cases in Crown Court were presented from a relatively neutral point of view and the action was confined to the courtroom itself, with occasional brief glimpses of waiting areas outside the courtroom. Although those involved in the case were actors, the jury was made up of members of the general public from the immediate Granada Television franchise area taken from the electoral register and eligible for real jury service: it was this jury alone, which decided the verdict. Indeed, contemporary production publicity stated that, for almost all 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, while the programme's recording progressed. However, the course of some cases would lead to the jury being directed to return 'not guilty' verdicts.

After an unscreened pilot, the first story to be shown was Lieberman v Savage (18 to 20 October 1972). Unusually this was a civil case, whereas the vast majority of subsequent instalments featured criminal trials, with only occasional civil cases such as libel, insurance or copyright claims.

Variations

There were some subtle changes in presentation in the early years. In the first year or so stories often opened with photographs of key figures or incidents around the alleged offence over which the court reporter would narrate the background to the case. In other instances there were filmed sequences but these were without dialogue and rarely showed the alleged offence. They were phased out a little earlier than the photos. Thereafter the action would immediately start in the courtroom.

Although the standard format was stories of three 25-minute episodes there were occasional variations. In 1973 there was one story of just one episode and another comprising two. In July and August 1975 a number of stories were presented in single extended episodes at 8.15pm on Saturdays—a prime time scheduling. They occupied a slot of 75 minutes (just over one hour for the story on-screen after adverts are taken into account.) This was a brief experiment and the programme reverted to its standard format and daytime location thereafter.

The series was occasionally humorous and was even capable of self-parody. On 27 December 1973 a 52-minute self-contained episode Murder Most Foul had a distinctly light-hearted theme and even featured special Christmas-style titles and music. The 1977 story An Upward Fall, written by absurdist playwright N. F. Simpson, was played as a comedy. This bizarre case featured an old people's home built atop a 3,000-foot cliff; its only lavatories were located at the foot of the cliff. Other stories were deadly serious, such as the story Treason in which a White Congolese man is found guilty by the jury and sentenced to death for treason by the court (a crime formally still punishable by execution under British law at that time.)

Untransmitted stories

An untransmitted pilot called Doctor's Neglect? was eventually broadcast as part of a repeat run on satellite channel Legal TV over 30 years later, and again on Talking Pictures TV commencing Monday 9 January 2023. Like the first transmitted episode, this was a civil case—in this instance relating to negligence. The pilot story differs in style in some important respects. In particular, it features informal conversations between the barristers in their quarters as well as them giving advice to clients. Neither aspect figured in episodes from the broadcast run itself, which strictly confined legal discussions to the courtroom. The episode also has no jury; the case is decided by a judge alone. David Ashford, a regular in the programme's early stages as barrister Charles Lotterby, plays a different barrister called Derek Jones. Actors Ernest Hare and David Neal make their only appearances, as a judge and barrister respectively.

This was not the only example of untransmitted stories. In February 1974 the scheduled Traffic Warden's Daughter was replaced by The Getaway. In 1979 Heart To Heart, intended for transmission from 15 to 17 April, was replaced by a repeat of A Ladies' Man (originally broadcast 15–17 February 1977). Although neither story was ever broadcast on terrestrial TV they both received airings on Legal TV and have since been released on DVD.

Rarer still is a story titled A Case For Justice – A Party to Crime, a three-part instalment produced after a couple of two-parters in 1981. Written by Michael Wilcox and featuring actors David Langton, Robin Kermode and Barry Stanton. For unknown reasons, this was never screened on ITV nor on Legal TV or on any other known channel and has not been released on DVD either.

Contributors

Regular actors included William Mervyn, John Barron, John Woodnutt, John Horsley, Edward Jewesbury, Richard Warner, Richard Caldicot, Basil Dignam, Laurence Hardy, Alan Rowe, André Morell, Frank Middlemass, Thorley Walters, John Moffatt and Basil Henson as judges, John Alkin, David Ashford, Keith Barron, Jonathan Elsom, Bernard Gallagher, Peter Jeffrey, Peter Copley, Charles Keating, Maureen Lipman, T. P. McKenna, Dorothy Vernon, Richard Wilson, William Simons and Robert Stephens were among the most common faces as barristers.

Other (then or subsequently) famous names to appear on the show included Eleanor Bron, Peter Capaldi, Warren Clarke, Tom Conti, Brian Cox, Honey Bane, Philip Bond, Liz Dawn, Michael Elphick, Sheila Fearn, Colin Firth, Gregor Fisher, Brenda Fricker, Derek Griffiths, Nigel Havers, Ian Hendry, Joan Hickson, Bernard Hill, Ben Kingsley, John Le Mesurier, Ian Marter, Mark McManus, Vivien Merchant, Mary Miller, Geraldine Newman, Bill Nighy, Judy Parfitt, Robert Powell, Patricia Routledge, Peter Sallis, Anthony Sharp, Michael Sheard, Barbara Shelley, Juliet Stevenson, Patrick Troughton, Mary Wimbush and Mark Wing-Davey.

Writers included Ian Curteis, David Fisher, Peter Wildeblood, John Godber, Ngaio Marsh and Jeremy Sandford.

Recurring characters

Peter Wheeler as narrator and court reporter

David Ashford as Charles Lotterby

William Mervyn as The Hon. Mr. Justice Campbell

Dorothy Vernon as Helen Tate

Bernard Gallagher as Jonathan Fry QC

John Alkin as barrister Barry Deeley

John Barron as Mr. Justice Mitchenor

Richard Wilson as Jeremy Parsons QC

Charles Keating as James Elliot QC

Edward Jewesbury as The Hon. Mr. Justice Bragge

Jonathan Elsom as Marcus Golding QC

Mervyn Johns as Arthur Charles Parfitt and Edward Lumsden

Richard Warner as The Hon. Mr. Justice Waddington

John Horsley as Justice Mowbray

Frank Middlemass as The Hon. Mr. Justice Craig

Basil Dignam as Mr. Justice Poynter

Gareth Forwood as Doctor Park

Laurence Hardy as Mr. Justice Stoddard

Basil Henson as Justice Yearly

T. P. McKenna as Patrick Canty QC

Production and archive details

In an effort to make the replica courtroom appear as realistic as possible to the 'jury', each episode was recorded as 'live', with retakes kept to an absolute minimum. The cameras (which at the time of production were large and cumbersome and required an operator to be present) were placed at strategic points and largely 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 by Peter Wheeler (or occasionally others) at the beginning either to 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).

All episodes of Crown Court exist in PAL colour as originally transmitted, including the postponed Heart to Heart.

Repeats and commercial availability

Legal TV and UK Satellite channel Red TV showed episodes from the series from 2006 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, mostly from series one and two, in the late-1990s.

Satellite channel Sky Soap repeated the first 11 episodes from 1972 in a weekday lunchtime slot in April 1999.

Despite the almost full archive of broadcast quality episodes the series has never been repeated on ITV since the mid 1980s.

The story The Eleventh Commandment was included as an extra on Network DVD's 2007 release of The Sandbaggers Series 3 as it features the series' lead actor Roy Marsden.

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.

The Network DVD release of Strangers includes the 1977 story A Place to Stay, featuring Don Henderson.

Eight volumes of stories have been released by Network DVD. These are in production order and currently include all those broadcast from the programme's inception to July 1974. The two instalments not broadcast by ITV are also included.

Talking Pictures TV began airing three episodes (one case) a week, beginning in January 2023, and starting with the pilot "Doctor's Neglect?". The three episodes were originally aired on three separate days of the week, but were later shown contiguously on a single day.

Episodes

The episodes below are listed in the order available on TV Guide.

Reception

Critical response

Jon E. Lewis and Penny Stempel described Crown Court as a "quintessence of 70s afternoon drama", noting that it "languidly but effectively covered surprisingly substantial topics".

Laurence Marcus of Television Heaven called the series as a "wonderful opportunity to observe the British justice system in a series that was shot with an authenticity rarely seen in more recent productions".