Kavanagh QC

I had not seen this series before today.The first episode whilst not outstanding was well worth watching, decently acted and entertaining. However I couldn't help but note that no less than six of the actors had previously appeared with John Thaw as central characters in separate episodes of Inspector Morse:- George Costigan - The infernal serpent, Phyllis Logan - The daughters of Cain, Holly Aired - Last bus to Woodstock, John Shrapnal - Death is now my neighbour, Lisa Harrow - Sins of the father and Oliver Ford Davies - Second time around. There may have been others I had not spotted. I wonder if Thaw was instrumental in selecting the cast based upon their performances in the crime series.

The writing and the acting are sublime. We must also credit the editing, which keeps things moving smartly along.

The courtroom scenes are meticulously wrought. As a longtime trial lawyer I can say they are not only realistic, but made riveting by their very realism, rather than by contrived histrionics. There is often a surprising twist.

Each episode has multiple subplots surrounding the central courtroom drama, involving Kavanagh's once-unfaithful but now apparently loving wife, his naive and often disrespectful children, and his flavorful rivals and chamber colleagues.

High literature, this is. Just excellent.

Kavanagh Q.C. is a British Series about a barrister with the designation of Queen's Counsel (hence the title) which stars John Thaw, Thaw is likely best known to most for the "Inspector Morse" series or "The Sweeney". In both of these other two series Thaw played police officers although decidedly different ones. With Kavanagh we again have another character very different than either Morse or Jack Regan.

I found it somewhat refreshing to see a series both for Thaw and of this type where the lead character has a home life and a family. I find it unfortunate that later in the series they decided to curtail this approach which I thought brought a nice balance to the series.

Overall the series has a few flaws including some supporting characters that are thinly developed or caricatured (although the performances are by and large good) and the writing fails to give us many memorable courtroom moments. But I found that it was counterbalanced by a well developed lead character (with a strong performance from Thaw) as well as some interesting subject manner and social commentary. Another reason I found this intriguing is because the courtroom drama on TV still hasn't as overdone as other genres, and this was the only example I have seen from Britain.

This is also another British series with some very good guest stars including a young Ewan McGregor in the first episode.

Unfortunately not all the episodes of the series have been released on DVD for Region 1. Hopefully this will be rectified at some point in the future.

The only reason why I didn't give this a 10, is because I still think that Morse is John Thaw's best role. But I just want to say, he is absolutely magnificent here. Like Morse, Thaw put a bit of himself into the character, which is always very appealing. The episodes aren't complicated, not like Judge John Deed, and there have been a great flow of British actors like Larry Lamb, Ewen McGregor, Tom Courtenay, Stuart Laing and Richard Pasco. ( who was also in the saddest Inspector Morse, dead On time)The music is beautiful, and it also boosted the careers of Shakespearean actress Lisa Harrow, Eastenders'Cliff Parissi and Anna Chancellor, who all brought a brief but pleasing shine to the drama. And a vast majority of the courtroom scenes are just mesmorising, thanks to Thaw and the scripts, which are of exceptional quality. If anything, I wish it lasted longer, but Thaw died before they could do another series. 9/10. Bethany Cox

To me it is bland pablum, because Kavanagh does not have the force of personal character that Perry Mason had. But stories very similar in some ways. Maybe it is the silly British white court wigs they wear that makes my stomach queasy. John Thaw was outstanding as Morse and I enjoyed the more indepth look at the character's perssonal life. Kavanagh QC should either focus more on the courtroom drama exclusively or on the character, becauses what it DOES do is skim over both. I watched the episode about the Jehovah's Witness mother and son today and it could have been so much better if it had not just been the veneer -- no real drama anywhere in it even though there is blood and guts and death and more life hanging in the balance in court. Pleasant enough but only good for background noise while I do other thing.