Crown Court (UK TV series)

***Crown Court*** is a television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network which ran from October 18, 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to March 29, 1984. It was transmitted in the early afternoon.

A court case in the crown court of the fictional town of Fulchester would typically be played out over three afternoons in 25-minute episodes. The most frequent format was for the prosecution case to be presented in the first two episodes and the defence in the third, although there were some later, brief variations.

Unlike some other legal dramas, the cases in Crown Court were presented from a relatively neutral point of view and the action was confined to the courtroom itself, with occasional brief glimpses of waiting areas outside the courtroom. Although those involved in the case were actors, the jury was made up of members of the general public from the immediate Granada Television franchise area taken from the electoral register and eligible for real jury service: it was this jury alone which decided the verdict. Indeed, contemporary production publicity stated that, for many of the scripts, two endings were written and rehearsed to cope with the jury's independent decision which was delivered for the first time, as in a real court case, while the programme's recording progressed. However, the course of some cases would lead to the jury being directed to return 'not guilty' verdicts.

After an unscreened pilot, the first story to be shown was Lieberman v Savage (October 18 to 20, 1972). Unusually this was a civil case, whereas the vast majority of subsequent instalments featured criminal trials, with only occasional civil cases such as libel, insurance or copyright claims.

The series was occasionally humorous and was even capable of self-parody. On December 27, 1973 a 52-minute self-contained episode Murder Most Foul had a distinctly light-hearted theme and even featured special Christmas-style titles and music. The 1977 story An Upward Fall, written by absurdist playwright N. F. Simpson, was played for laughs. This bizarre case featured an old people's home built atop a 3000-foot cliff; its only lavatories were located at the foot of the cliff. Other episodes were deadly serious, such as the story Treason in which a White Congolese man is found guilty by the jury and sentenced to death for treason by the court (a crime still punishable by execution under British law at that time).

Regular actors included John Barron, Frank Middlemass, and Basil Henson as judges, Keith Barron, Bernard Gallagher, Maureen Lipman, T. P. McKenna, Richard Wilson and William Simons were among the most common faces as barristers.

Other (currently or subsequently) famous names to appear on the show included Eleanor Bron, Warren Clarke, Tom Conti, Brian Cox, Michael Elphick, Colin Firth, Brenda Fricker, Derek Griffiths, Nigel Havers, Ian Hendry, Gregor Fisher, Ben Kingsley, Ian Marter, Mark McManus, Judy Parfitt, Robert Powell, Peter Sallis, Michael Sheard, Barbara Shelley, Juliet Stevenson, Patrick Troughton, Peter Capaldi and Mark Wing-Davey. Bernard Hill made one of his first television appearances in 1976, when he played the foreman of the jury in the story Scard. Liz Dawn appeared as an uncredited extra for a non speaking part as a prison officer in Evil Liver.

Writers included Ian Curteis, David Fisher, Peter Wildeblood, John Godber, Ngaio Marsh and Jeremy Sandford.

The opening theme was Sinfonietta by Janáček, 4th movement.

Distant Hills by the Simon Park Orchestra, closed each episode.