Old Unhappy Far-Off Things

By John Mortimer.

A Christmas treat for all Rumpole fans and all Radio 4 listeners who love a good whodunit with a cracking court case thrown in for good measure.

Benedict Cumberbatch, plays the young, feisty, devastatingly acute legal eagle Horace Rumpole in his first big murder case, where he defends for the first time "alone and without a leader" in the case which was to make his name; and of course the story also marks the beginning of his life-long liason with "She who must be obeyed"; as we hear, recalled through the memoirs of the older Rumpole, how young Rumpole found himself engaged and married without being absolutely sure that he had in fact proposed in the first place!

It is the fifties, a short decade after the end of the war, and two war heroes have been shot dead. The only suspect is Simon Jerrold, the son of one of the victims, and he faces the death penalty. Defending him is deemed hopeless, so the case is handed to a novice. But the novice's superiors didn't count on the tenacity and wit of the young and hungry Horace Rumpole

Adapted by Richard Stoneman

Producer/Director ..... Marilyn Imrie
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.