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RIP John Mortimer
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:00 am
by silverscreenselect
British barrister and writer, creator of the popular mystery series featuring Rumpole of the Bailey, played by Leo McKern in many telecasts shown in this country on PBS. He also wrote the screenplay for Tea with Mussolini.
Age 85.
Re: RIP John Mortimer
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:42 am
by themanintheseersuckersuit
Oh crap, I will miss him. I loved his books and essays.
“Rumpole would have got me off,” one defendant told Mortimer, “why couldn’t you?”
At the end of one case he congratulated the jury on having sat through the most boring trial ever to have been held in the criminal court. “It may surprise you to know, members of the jury,” the judge began in his summing up, “that the sole purpose of the criminal law in England is not to entertain Mr Mortimer.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... ehest.html