Judge John Deed

There have been two series so far of this programme. It seems deliberately to set out to contradict the impression of the British legal system portrayed by the excellent "Rumpole of the Bailey", of senile judges and smug arch-conservative barristers.

Here, the main character has radical leanings, a messy private life and a very active libido. Much of the sub-plot is involved with side-swipes at the (Labour) government of the day, although the implication is that power corrupts; the political complexion of the office holders doesn't affect their greed or ambition.

The one common factor with other screen portrayals of the British legal system is the very precise diction and grammar used by barristers and judges. The courtroom scenes are well worth watching.

Some elements of the plot rather strain belief, but the series is quite enjoyable.

Having been bought up in Australia with a father who was a barrister and once offered a Supreme Court judicial appointment - I have to say that this program goes a long way to showing the true imperialism of the judicial system.

My father rejected the overtures for his own reasons but having watched Deeds I have to say I have seen it all. A judge is a mentor, a guardian, an executioner but most of all a human being. The politics that goes with the position is common.

Look at your own life! Change Deeds into the counselor at school, the mediator in a dispute, the local parish priest, the HR officer at work and somewhere there is a Deeds in it.

To look upon the law and see the stupidity of it is a gift most lack because there is no law just politics and Judge John Deed highlights that more than any law and order program now or in the past. I believe this is the intention of the program. Entertain - definitely - educate on how the system is and can be twisted more than likely.

Watch Deeds and say to yourself "Why is it so =- how can this happen - and how many times has it happened?". Watch again the next week and ask the same question.

Be prepared to think

This is a great legal drama series. The cast is stellar, the dialogue is wonderful, the legal drama is intelligent.

One downside is that the writers limited every courtroom battle to Deed presiding over his ex-wife, his love interest and daughter. The story lines would have been just as compelling even if other barristers had appeared in front of him.

Also, had Deed sabotaged himself in ways other than just sleeping with women who appeared before him, it would have still made for compelling viewing.

Some of the antagonists are written as one dimensional cartoonist villains. There was plenty of scope to make them and their motivations more complex, so we, the audience, could have been more challenged. eg the CEO of the telco acted like a slimy bond villain.

I am rather disappointed as the series unfolds. What started as something very special and believable, is turning into a total farce. When I say "what started" I mean when I started to watch it, I have no idea what episode it was, actually I did only watch one or two episodes at first, and much latter got involved more regularly with it. But the last episode I watched was a case against animal right protest people who seemed to have maliciously planted a bomb in some animal lab resulting in someone's death. The problem with accepting so many side stories with the case is that eventually the case seems secondary to the stories. And the whole show seems bogged in a lot of superficial gossip material that does very little to entertain me. Just try this for evaluation. A judge has in his court for a murder trial his inexperienced and not really qualified daughter left in charge of the defense, occasionally helped by HIS deserting mistress - and here we're supposed to be talking about a Conservative judge! This is rather worrying - are we going to end up with judge john Days-of-our-life? There is no doubt about Martin Shaw's charisma. He is very good. I imagine, with series, directors and writers have to stretch beyond themselves and their talent for the show to go on. What a pity!

Any programme starring Martin Shaw has to be worth looking at but this one ends up disappointing. In particular, the scripts become increasingly pro forma and stilted as the series proceed. By the final series, Deed's chat-up line, some variation on "I want to make love to you" goes beyond irritating. In fact, the whole gender dynamic is now on the troubling side. What probably seemed sexy and edgy when the series premiered now, in the 2020s sometimes looks more like harassment or stalking. The melodramatic relationship between Deed and Jo Mills reinforces this. With more nuance, it could have been great. As is, though, you just want them both to get over it all. Seagrove, who plays Mills, is given a one-dimensional script so doesn't really get to demonstrate much beyond "passionate character verging on unreason". The various government officials and lackeys who try to interfere with Deed's personal ideas of justice throughout also tend to be one-dimensional although some of them develop more complex characters as the series goes on.

Overall, this show was incredibly successful when it was made, but television has become much more sophisticated since then and Shaw has gone on to better things.