Horace Rumpole is a figure to set along side Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood in the pantheon of great British creations. Is it drama? Is it comedy? It is both and along side the great man are a host of entertaining supporting figures such as Hilda Rumpole (She who must be obeyed), Claude Erskine Brown, Judge Bullingham (The Bull), Philippa Erskine Brown (The Porta of Chambers), Uncle Tom (who having no legal work plays golf in the office) Soapey Sam Ballard and Gutherie Featherstone, as well as various members of the criminal Timson family. Above all there is Horace Rumpole lover of the fried English breakfast, steak and kidney pudding, spotted dick, cheap claret, small cigars and poetry. It is an articule of faith that his clients never plead guilty and that Horace, who as it is pionted out knows nothing about the law, can sway a jury. Sadly Horace does not always win even when his clients are innocent. The stories are good and set in an England that no longer exists indeed never existed in the first place, that is to say an England of ecentric lawyers and lovable criminals. However the real reason to watch this series is to see Horace Rumploe played by the late great Leo McKern, with cigar ash down his waistcoat, making a fool of the most pompous of judges. So good is McKern's performance in playing this most English of figures you forget that Leo McKern was in fact an Australian.