North Square

This was a great series that sadly never made it to a second round.

I enjoyed all the characters and their office and other politics.

This should be compulsory viewing for those of us thinking of stepping up to the bar. (UK and countries with similar judiciary systems only)

North Square was an excellent one-hour drama series with a great cast and great characters. The scripts were plausible and funny and it looked like a sure-fire hit. What happened? We only get one series of this and yet we're on the third series of the lame 'Teachers'. North Square was a sharp as The West Wing in places. Sometimes I really don't understand how television works.

Here in Australia our ABC is currently doing a repeat screening of this top notch British legal drama/comedy, and not a moment too soon. 10 episodes is just not enough of North Square and it's completely criminal that more were never made.

North Square may not be a realistic portrayal of legal life (though my own experiences as a law student and one-time article clerk do make me wonder if there is a grain of truth in North Square) but it has witty dialogue and fascinating characters. It's hard to pick a favourite part of North Square but my vote goes to barrister Tom Mitford's method of swaying juries and judges - with quotes from The Merchant Of Venice....it's adaptable to any case, even indecent exposure.

But there are heaps of great moments in this show. Find a copy, watch it, and let it endear you to the legal world of Leeds.

Another Channel 4 great canned long before it's time. Compelling acting from Phil Davis and the rest of the cast. Sexy, intelligent and funny. I remember watching it at the time and even then, asking around, no-one had really heard of it. But trying to find someone now who can recall it is even harder. Perhaps Channel 4 don't do their job well enough in drumming up the enthusiasm needed. Either that or the general public is too interested in the TV vomit that is Big Brother. I suspect the latter. Downloading of Garth Merengie's Dark Place prompted Channel 4 to release a DVD of that series. Let's hope the same can happen with North Square.

I was sorry to hear of the demise of this series after only one season; it seemed to have a lot of potential despite a lot of over-writing and some rather farcical story-lines. Essentially it's `This Life' injected into `Rumpole.' Like most good series the interest was in the characters and their interaction and there was a great line-up here. There are the two young cavaliers, Alex (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Billy (Kevin McKidd), their spouses Helen (Victoria Smurfitt) and the redoubtable Rose (Helen McCrory), Morag (Ruth Millar) and Stevie (Sasha Behar) the duelling juniors. Towering over them all, is Peter McLeish (Philip Davis), nominally a mere clerk, but to all intents and purposes the boss. McLeish will do almost anything to advance the careers of his barristers, including it seems getting them struck off. The farcial element is mainly provided by the clients, or at least by the close relationship McLeish feels he has to cultivate with the crime bosses of Leeds, where the series is set, to hustle briefs for his chambers.

As befits a series of this sort there's lots of bonking and an almost unbelievable amount of drinking. Maybe that's the way they do things in the north of England; my recollection of the Sydney bar is that heavy drinking was a minority occupation and anyone with enough energy left for sex was clearly neglecting their practice. As for sex with an instructing solicitor, nothing could be further from most barrister's minds. However the court stuff here is cool. North Square member Tom Mitford (Dominic Rowan) has a great line in final speeches to the jury which sometimes even work on judges sitting without a jury – there's nothing harder than swaying a judge's emotions. Rose is also a star, and even Alex, the series male bimbo, does some good work from time to time.

But McLeish dominates proceedings. He's the master of the unexpected, keeping his own staff on their toes and his barristers well supplied with booze and briefs. The last episode explains a lot about the character and his motivation, but the Svengali act seems second nature. It's certainly the most swashbuckling portrayal of a barrister's clerk seen on the screen, but not a million miles from reality. Think of ex-Private First class Wintergreen, in the book `Catch 22', who did command assignments at Allied HQ, of whom even generals were afraid.