P1050021.JPG "The Old Bailey" London EC4 | Justice Hall, or … | Flickr Constant By: Constant P1050021.JPG "The Old Bailey" London EC4 Justice Hall, or the Sessions House, was also called the Old Bailey, after the street in which it was located, just off Newgate Street and next to Newgate Prison, in the western part of the City of London. Over the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the building was remodelled in ways which both reflected and influenced the changing ways trials were carried out and reported (see trial procedures). The current Old Bailey Courthouse stands on the same site. History of The Old Bailey Courthouse London's Central Criminal Court, 1673-1834 Homepage » Historical Background » The Old Bailey Courthouse Justice Hall, or the Sessions House, was also called the Old Bailey, after the street in which it was located, just off Newgate Street and next to Newgate Prison, in the western part of the City of London.

Over the course of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the building was remodelled in ways which both reflected and influenced the changing ways trials were carried out and reported (see trial procedures). The current Old Bailey Courthouse stands on the same site. Location the sessions house on old bailey, from john rocque's map of london, westminster and southwark, 1746, copyright motco, 2003.The Old Bailey was located about 200 yards northwest of St Paul's Cathedral, just outside the western wall of the City of London. It is named after the street in which it is located which itself follows the line of the original fortified wall, or "bailey", of the City. The location of the courthouse close to Newgate prison allowed prisoners to be conveniently brought to the courtroom for their trials. More generally, its position between the City of London and Westminster meant it was a suitable location for trials involving people from all over the metropolis, north of the river Thames. In 1834 the name and jurisdiction of the Old Bailey changed.

Reflecting the growth of the London area, the jurisdiction of the new Central Criminal Court spread beyond the City of London and Middlesex to include parts of neighbouring counties. The new court met twelve times a year, rather than eight, and the courthouse was remodelled yet again. The current building on the site was opened in 1907. Literary associations; John Mortimer QC (1923-2009) author of "Rumpole of the Old Bailey" (1975). Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966 he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile though came from cases relating to claims of obscenity which according to Mortimer were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance". Though sometimes thought to have been involved in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, he successfully defended publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn.

Mortimer fulfilled the same role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook. Mortimer was defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976 he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of Blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Done John Mortimer - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki More info on John Mortimer Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles .

Related top topics Encyclopedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the writer. For the judge, see John B. Mortimer . For the leader of the Kent rebellion, see Jack Cade . Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE , QC Born The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully Notable award(s) Penelope Gollop (1972-2009, his death) Children Ross Bentley (with actress Wendy Craig ) Four stepdaughters Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE , QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) [1] was an English barrister , dramatist , screenwriter and author . Contents 11 External links Early life Mortimer was born in Hampstead , London , the only child of Kathleen May ( née Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister [2] who became blind in 1936, when he banged his head on a tree branch, [3] but still pursued his career. The loss of his father's sight was not referred to by the family.

[4] Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School and Harrow where he joined the Communist Party [5] forming a one member cell. [6] Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor, his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II , gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, [6] and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ... [the law] gets you out of the house." [5] At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. [7] In July 1942, at the end of his second year, Mortimer was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after letters to a Bradfield sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC , [8] were discovered by the young man's housemaster. [6] Early writing career Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II , with weak eyes and doubtful lungs.

[5] He worked for the Crown Film Unit , writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. "I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee , earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama." [9] He based his first novel Charade on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit. Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel, Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme . But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief, starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio 's Third Programme , later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline?

at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre . It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions. [10] His play, A Voyage Round My Father , given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical , recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre in 1979 with Dignam, then a year later at the Theatre Royal Haymarket , now starring Alec Guinness ). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Sir Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screen play for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing . Legal career Mortimer was called to the Bar ( Inner Temple ) in 1948, at the age of 25.

His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966 he began to undertake work in criminal law. [5] His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity which according to Mortimer were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance". [4] Though sometimes thought to have been involved in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, [11] he successfully defended publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr. 's Last Exit to Brooklyn . [5] Mortimer fulfilled the same role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook . [5] Mortimer was defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976 he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon ( Whitehouse v. Lemon ) for the publication of James Kirkup 's " The Love that Dares to Speak its Name " against charges of blasphemous libel ; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.

[12] His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks , and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. [5] Later writing career Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole , whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey . Mortimer created Rumpole for Rumpole of the Bailey , based on a chance Court encounter with James Burge QC, as a 1975 contribution to the BBCs Play For Today anthology series. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor, Leo McKern played the character with gusto proving popular, and the idea was developed into a series Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television and a series of books (all written by Mortimer).

In September-October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole dramatizations by Mortimer starring Timothy West in the title role. He also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series starring ex- Doctor Who star Tom Baker . Mortimer was credited with the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh 's Brideshead Revisited for Granada Television in 1981. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, [13] revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles ' The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his description of what he saw as Britain's descent into the viciousness of Thatcherism – Paradise Postponed – was televised, in an adaptation from his own novel.

He also wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli , for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini , directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright , Cher , Judi Dench , Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin . From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US comedy television show Boston Legal . [14] He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts. Personal life Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer , in 1949 and had a son and a daughter by her, Sally Silverman and Jeremy Mortimer . [15] The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, but Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later filmed , is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer , and Rosie Mortimer.

He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999. [7] In September 2004 Tim Walker, The Sunday Telegraph 's Mandrake diarist, revealed the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, [3] and born in November 1961. [6] Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length west end play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Awarded the CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.

Death Mortimer died on 16 January 2009, aged 85, after a long illness. [16] He had suffered a stroke in October 2008. Attributes John Mortimer was a patron of the Burma Campaign UK , the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma , and was the president of the Royal Court Theatre having been the chairman of its board from 1990 to 2000. Earlier, he was on the board of the National Theatre from 1968 to 1988. References 3 External links Sourced Do we want blanks, asterisks and exclamation marks which people can fill in with their own imaginations, or are we prepared and strong enough to tolerate, even if we do not approve, the strong Anglo-Saxon, realistic and vivid language? Defending record shop proprietor Christopher Seale against obscenity charges for displaying advertisements for Sex Pistols ' LP Never Mind the Bollocks, Nottingham Magistrates Court ( 1977 - 11-14 ) I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.

Clinging to the Wreckage : A Part of Life (1982), p. 183 I found criminal clients easy and matrimonial clients hard. Matrimonial clients hate each other so much and use their children to hurt each other in beastly ways. Murderers have usually killed the one person in the world that was bugging them and they're usually quite peaceful and agreeable. Quoted in Sam Marsden and Chris Moncrieff, "Rumpole creator Mortimer dies at 85," The Independent ( 2009 - 01-16 ) People will go to endless trouble to divorce one person and then marry someone who is exactly the same, except probably a bit poorer and a bit nastier. I don't think anybody learns anything.

Quoted in Sam Marsden and Chris Moncrieff, "Rumpole creator Mortimer dies at 85," The Independent ( 2009 - 01-16 ) Where There's a Will: Thoughts on the Good Life (2003) Beliefs about how you live your life, matters of private decision, views best kept for private enjoyment, prejudice or entertainment, can't be imposed by the operation of criminal law. Attempts to enforce such views can only make the government the subject of ridicule. A barrister's job is to put the case for the defense as effectively and clearly as would his client if he had an advocate's skills. The barrister's belief or disbelief in the truth of the story is irrelevant: it's for the jury to decide this often difficult question. And in spite of David and Jonathan, Hamlet and Horatio, Caesar and Antony, Bush and Blair, women have a greater gift, I think, for friendship.

The three towering geniuses of European culture, Shakespeare , Mozart and Leonardo da Vinci were not allowed to appear on the euro note as they might, in their separate ways, cause offense: Mozart because he was a "womanizer," Shakespeare because he wrote The Merchant of Venice, a play judged to be anti-Semitic, and Leonardo because he was reported to fancy boys. Now the euro note carries a picture of a rather dull bridge. The anxiety has been greatly increased by this government's multiplication of exams and emphasis on starting training as a middle manager in a computer company from the age of six. A "war against terrorism" is an impracticable conception if it means fighting terrorism with terrorism. The doctor who makes a friend of his patients, the lawyer who defends death penalty cases in distant countries for no fee, the schoolteacher who opens a child's eyes to a new world of books and poetry - such people do nothing that can be measured in marketplaces. The greatest painters, composers and writers don't offer you choices, they present you with what only they can do, and you must take it or leave it. So when such subjects as the values of the marketplace are discussed, you will probably not have much to contribute.

You can repeat a poem in your head and wait until the conversation is over. But if anyone starts talking about "level playing fields," get up and steal quietly from the room. If you can't sleep with your own wife wearing a false beard, what can you do? Are people naturally destructive, immoral, predatory and self-seeking, only to be kept in order by harsh laws and fiercely deterrent mandatory sentences? Or are men and women naturally orderly, merciful, humane and bred with a need for justice and mutual aid? ... when it comes to the law some sort of distinction can be drawn. Are you a Shylock or a Bassanio? Jewish custom, which traces descent solely from the mother, is more sensible and more discreet. Our own lawgivers can't accept the fact that there are many things in family life that are best kept shrouded in mystery.

In New York, crossing 58th Street from the Plaza Oyster Bar to the Wyndham Hotel, I came up against a huge black man in a long, dark overcoat who said, in deep and threatening tones, "Give me fifty dollars!" I managed to ask him if he would be content with thirty-five and, rather to my surprise, he said, "All right, give me thirty-five dollars!" And so the deal was done. It's tempting to wonder how many of the inventions of the past century we might have been better off without. Take the aeroplane for instance. It has transformed warfare from an event in which trained soldiers kill each other on distant battlefields to occasions when death is rained down indiscriminately on innocent civilians, while the professional fighters fly at a great height in comparative safety. The "medium is the message" is one of the world's silliest remarks. The message is the message, and it doesn't matter whether you send it by e-mail, a note in a bottle or on a picture postcard.

The book, or the poem, or the play is what counts and it doesn't matter if it's written with a pen on a long sheet of ruled paper, as I am writing now, or on the most highly developed word processor. No machine can help with the rhythms of your prose, even if it can spell better than you can. We wondered why we ever thought there was, during the Cold War, any serious danger of Russia conquering the world when they couldn't even deliver the scenery for The Tempest . Unsourced Television is one of the few things that works well in this country. This must be why the government has decided to destroy it.

On the 1990 Broadcasting Act External links Learn and talk about John Mortimer, 20th-century English novelists, 20th-century English writers, 20th-century short story writers, Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Early life[ edit ] Mortimer was born in Hampstead , London, the only child of Kathleen May ( née Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister [2] who became blind in 1936, when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi, [3] but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family. [4] John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School , in Oxford , and Harrow School , where he joined the Communist Party [5] forming a one-member cell. [6] Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor; his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II , gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, [6] and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ...

[the law] gets you out of the house." [5] At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. [7] In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC , [8] were discovered by the young man's housemaster. [6] He graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in October 1943. [9] Early writing career[ edit ] Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II , with weak eyes and doubtful lungs. [5] He worked for the Crown Film Unit , under Laurie Lee , writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer.

If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama. [10] He based his first novel Charade on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.[ citation needed ] Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel, Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme . But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief , starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister , first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio 's Third Programme , later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre . It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions.

[11] His play, A Voyage Round My Father , given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical , recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre in 1979 with Dignam, then a year later at the Theatre Royal Haymarket , now starring Alec Guinness ). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing , which also starred Olivier.[ citation needed ] Legal career[ edit ] Mortimer was called to the Bar ( Inner Temple ) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law.

[5] His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity , which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance." [4] He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate. [12] Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr. 's Last Exit to Brooklyn . [5] He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook . [5] Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon ( Whitehouse v. Lemon ) for the publication of James Kirkup 's " The Love that Dares to Speak its Name " against charges of blasphemous libel ; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.

[13] His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols , and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. [5] Later writing career[ edit ] Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole , inspired by his father Clifford, [14] whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey . Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor (in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim -- "but he was dead"), Leo McKern played the character with gusto and proved popular; accordingly, the idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television , in which McKern again took the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books.

In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series featuring former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as the protagonist. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television 's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited , based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh . However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, [15] revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles 's The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised.

He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli , for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini , directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright , Cher , Judi Dench , Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin . From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal . [16] He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts.[ citation needed ] Personal life[ edit ] Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer , in 1949 and had a son Jeremy Mortimer and a daughter Sally Silverman . [17] The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into the film of the same name , is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972.

They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire . The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999. [7] In September 2004, Graham Lord discovered the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, [18] and born in November 1961. [6] Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park . Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley , the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Original courtesy of Wikipedia: — Please support Wikipedia. This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia .

A portion of the proceeds from advertising on Digplanet goes to supporting Wikipedia. We're sorry, but there's no news about "John Mortimer" right now. Limit to books that you can completely read online Include partial books (book previews) Oops, we seem to be having trouble contacting Twitter Support Wikipedia A portion of the proceeds from advertising on Digplanet goes to supporting Wikipedia. Please add your support for Wikipedia! Searchlight Group Digplanet also receives support from Searchlight Group. Visit Searchlight Copyright © 2009-2016 Digparty. All rights reserved. John Mortimer Inregistrat: 25-06-2014 Postari: 1582 Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC (21 April 1923 ï¿½ 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (nï¿½e Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister who became blind in 1936, when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi, but still pursued his career.

His father's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family. Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Harrow, where he joined the Communist Party forming a one member cell. Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor, his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II, gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ... [the law] gets you out of the house." At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. In July 1942, at the end of his second year, Mortimer was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC, were discovered by the young man's housemaster. Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25.

His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance." He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate. Mortimer did however successfully defend publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook. Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.

His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, inspired by his father Clifford, whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor (in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim -- "but he was dead" , Leo McKern played the character with gusto and proved popular; accordingly, the idea was developed into a series Rumpole of the Bailey' for Thames Television, in which McKern again took the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books.

In Septemberï¿½October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series featuring former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as the protagonist. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles's The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. This depicts what he saw as Britain's descent into viciousness in the era of Thatcherism.

Mortimer also wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal. He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts. Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer, in 1949 and had a son and a daughter by her, Sally Silverman and Jeremy Mortimer. The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into the film of the same name, is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer, and Rosie Mortimer.

He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999. In September 2004, Graham Lord discovered the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, and born in November 1961. Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Mortimer died on 16 January 2009, aged 85, after a long illness. He had suffered a stroke in October 2008.

More information: John Mortimer : definition of John Mortimer and synonyms of John Mortimer (English) 11 External links Early life Mortimer was born in Hampstead , London , the only child of Kathleen May ( née Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister [2] who became blind in 1936, when he banged his head on a tree branch, [3] but still pursued his career. His father's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family. [4] Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School , Oxford , and Harrow , where he joined the Communist Party [5] forming a one member cell. [6] Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor, his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II , gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, [6] and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ...

[the law] gets you out of the house." [5] At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. [7] In July 1942, at the end of his second year, Mortimer was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after letters to a Bradfield sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC , [8] were discovered by the young man's housemaster. [6] Early writing career Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II , with weak eyes and doubtful lungs. [5] He worked for the Crown Film Unit , writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. "I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee , earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit.

I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama." [9] He based his first novel Charade on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit. Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel, Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme . But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief , starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister , first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio 's Third Programme , later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre . It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions. [10] His play, A Voyage Round My Father , given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical , recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father.

It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre in 1979 with Dignam, then a year later at the Theatre Royal Haymarket , now starring Alec Guinness ). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screen play for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing . Legal career Mortimer was called to the Bar ( Inner Temple ) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law.

[5] His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance." [4] Although sometimes incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, this canard was refuted by his biographer Graham Lord. [11] On the other hand, Mortimer did successfully defend publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr. 's Last Exit to Brooklyn . [5] He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook . [5] Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon ( Whitehouse v. Lemon ) for the publication of James Kirkup 's " The Love that Dares to Speak its Name " against charges of blasphemous libel ; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.

[12] His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks , and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. [5] Later writing career Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole , whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey . Mortimer created Rumpole for Rumpole of the Bailey as a 1975 contribution to the BBCs Play For Today anthology series. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor, Leo McKern played the character with gusto and proved popular; accordingly, the idea was developed into a series Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television , in which McKern starred. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role.

Mortimer also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series starring ex- Doctor Who star Tom Baker . Mortimer was credited with the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh 's Brideshead Revisited for Granada Television in 1981. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, [13] revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles ' The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. This depicts what he saw as Britain's descent into viciousness in the era of Thatcherism . Mortimer also wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli , for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini , directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright , Cher , Judi Dench , Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin .

From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal . [14] He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts. Personal life Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer , in 1949 and had a son and a daughter by her, Sally Silverman and Jeremy Mortimer . [15] The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into the film of the same name , is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer , and Rosie Mortimer . He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire . The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.

[7] In September 2004, Graham Lord discovered the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, [3] and born in November 1961. [6] Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length west end play, The Wrong Side of the Park . Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley , the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage , he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Awarded the CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998. Death Mortimer died on 16 January 2009, aged 85, after a long illness. [16] He had suffered a stroke in October 2008.

Attributes John Mortimer was a patron of the Burma Campaign UK , the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma , and was the president of the Royal Court Theatre having been the chairman of its board from 1990 to 2000. Earlier, he was on the board of the National Theatre from 1968 to 1988. Bibliography John Mortimer - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos John Mortimer NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE For people with a similar name, see John Mortimer (disambiguation) . Sir John Mortimer Penelope Gollop (1972-2009; his death) Children Ross Bentley (with actress Wendy Craig ) Four stepdaughters Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE , QC (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) [1] was an English barrister , dramatist , screenwriter , and author .

Contents Early life[ edit ] Mortimer was born in Hampstead , London, the only child of Kathleen May ( née Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister [2] who became blind in 1936, when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi, [3] but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family. [4] John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School , in Oxford , and Harrow School , where he joined the Communist Party [5] forming a one-member cell. [6] Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor; his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II , gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, [6] and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ... [the law] gets you out of the house." [5] At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort.

[7] In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC , [8] were discovered by the young man's housemaster. [6] He graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in October 1943. [9] Early writing career[ edit ] Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II , with weak eyes and doubtful lungs. [5] He worked for the Crown Film Unit , under Laurie Lee , writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama.

[10] He based his first novel Charade on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.[ citation needed ] Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel, Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme . But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief , starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister , first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio 's Third Programme , later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre . It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions. [11] His play, A Voyage Round My Father , given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical , recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role.

In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre in 1979 with Dignam, then a year later at the Theatre Royal Haymarket , now starring Alec Guinness ). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing , which also starred Olivier.[ citation needed ] Legal career[ edit ] Mortimer was called to the Bar ( Inner Temple ) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. [5] His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity , which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance." [4] He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate.

[12] Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr. 's Last Exit to Brooklyn . [5] He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook . [5] Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon ( Whitehouse v. Lemon ) for the publication of James Kirkup 's " The Love that Dares to Speak its Name " against charges of blasphemous libel ; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. [13] His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols , and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty.

Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. [5] Later writing career[ edit ] Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole , inspired by his father Clifford, [14] whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey . Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor (in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim -- "but he was dead"), Leo McKern played the character with gusto and proved popular; accordingly, the idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television , in which McKern again took the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series featuring former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as the protagonist.

Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television 's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited , based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh . However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, [15] revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles 's The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli , for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini , directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright , Cher , Judi Dench , Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin . From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal .

[16] He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts. [17] Personal life[ edit ] Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer , in 1949 and had a son Jeremy Mortimer and a daughter Sally Silverman . [18] The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into the film of the same name , is the best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire . The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.

[7] In September 2004, Graham Lord discovered the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, [19] and born in November 1961. [6] Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park . Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley , the show business writer and musician. In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." John Mortimer: Quotes, Early Life, Early Writing Career, Legal Career, Later Writing Career, Personal Life, Death, Attributes, Bibliography, Select Screenwriting Credits, and a List of Books by Author John Mortimer Quotes more ï¿½ ï¿½ less "All the flower children were as alike as a congress of accountants and about as interesting.""Farce is tragedy played at a thousand revolutions per minute.""I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat.

There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.""I suppose that writers should, in a way, feel flattered by the censorship laws. They show a primitive fear and dread at the fearful magic of print.""The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedom of speech.""The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.""The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.""The worst fault of the working classes is telling their children they're not going to succeed.""There is always time for failure.""There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.""To escape jury duty in England, wear a bowler hat and carry a copy of the Daily telegraph." Early Life more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (nï¿½e Smith) and Clifford Mortimer, a barrister who became blind in 1936, when he banged his head on a tree branch, but still pursued his career.

His father's loss of sight sight was not acknowledged openly by the family. Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School and Harrow where he joined the Communist Party forming a one member cell. Originally Mortimer intended to be an actor, his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II, gained glowing reviews in The Draconian, and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife ... [the law] gets you out of the house." At seventeen, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. In July 1942, at the end of his second year, Mortimer was asked to leave Oxford by the Dean of Christ Church, after letters to a Bradfield sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC, were discovered by the young man's housemaster. Early Writing Career more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II, with weak eyes and doubtful lungs.

He worked for the Crown Film Unit, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries. "I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama." He based his first novel Charade on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit. Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955 with his adaptation of his own novel, Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme. But he made his debut as an original playwright with The Dock Brief, starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, later televised with the same cast and subsequently presented in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre.

It was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 as part of a touring double bill, Legal Fictions. His play, A Voyage Round My Father, given its first radio broadcast in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father. It was memorably televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a slightly longer version the play later became a stage success (first at Greenwich Theatre in 1979 with Dignam, then a year later at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, now starring Alec Guinness). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Sir Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screen play for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing. Legal Career more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25.

His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966 he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity which according to Mortimer were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance". Though sometimes thought to have been involved in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, he successfully defended publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. Mortimer fulfilled the same role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook. Mortimer was defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976 he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v.

Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. Later Writing Career more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, whose speciality is defending those accused of crime in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for Rumpole of the Bailey, based on a chance Court encounter with James Burge QC, as a 1975 contribution to the BBCs Play For Today anthology series.

Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor, Leo McKern played the character with gusto proving popular, and the idea was developed into a series Rumpole of the Bailey for Thames Television and a series of books (all written by Mortimer). In September-October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole dramatizations by Mortimer starring Timothy West in the title role. He also dramatised many of the real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series starring ex-Doctor Who star Tom Baker. Mortimer was credited with the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited for Granada Television in 1981. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and that the screenplay was actually written by the series producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles' The Ebony Tower, starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984.

In 1986, his description of what he saw as Britain's descent into the viciousness of Thatcherism — Paradise Postponed — was televised, in an adaptation from his own novel. He also wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US comedy television show Boston Legal. He developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court, and his work in total includes over fifty books, plays, and scripts. Personal Life more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Mortimer married Penelope Fletcher (he was her second husband), later better known as Penelope Mortimer, in 1949 and had a son and a daughter by her, Sally Silverman and Jeremy Mortimer. The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, but Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later filmed, is the best known.

The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer, and Rosie Mortimer. He lived with his second wife in the village of Turville Heath in Buckinghamshire. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999. In September 2004 Tim Walker, The Sunday Telegraph's Mandrake diarist, revealed the existence of a second son, Ross Bentley, conceived during a secret affair Mortimer pursued with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier, and born in November 1961. Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length west end play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician.

In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer." Awarded the CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.

Question: Who was defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial in 1971 and defended the Sex Pistols in a 1977 obscenity trial over the title of their album "Never Mind The Bollocks"?
Answer: John Mortimer