RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY

Robert Hardy has impersonated Winston Churchill and God, both, apparently, Englishmen. Here he's Horace Rumpole, the claret-drinking, cigar-smoking barrister who finds "in British justice a lifelong subject of harmless fun." Horace doesn't become head of chambers, nor does he always win his case, but he's prized and justly prized by the criminal class. He is not terribly fond of the law as found in the courts or as laid down at home by his wife, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed Hilda. Rumpole is linked in these stories with the Younger Generation, the Alternative Society, the Honourable Member, the Married Lady, the Learned Friends, and the Heavy Brigade. Aficionados will remember. Newcomers are in for a treat. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]