Judge John Deed: Season 1

Mr. Justice Deed (Martin Shaw, P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh) is not your average High Court judge. Despite the red robe and wig, his rakish charm and bedroom eyes belie a sharp intellect, while his passion for justice and his maverick approach set him at odds with the Lord Chancellor (Simon Chandler, Coronation Street). His affair with the Lord Chancellor's wife (Jemma Redgrave, Bramwell) hasn't helped his career, either. You'll marvel at the wisdom of Deed's unconventional tactics in cases from domestic violence and rape to workplace safety, kidnapping, assisted suicide and drug abuse.

Pilot - Exacting Justice
Deed presides over the murder trial of Maurice Hart, a black defendant who shot and killed the driver of a van which ran over and killed Hart's daughter in a hit and run accident.

At the same time, the judge is keen to investigate Hart's attractive defense counsel more closely, and he also jousts over the case with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at a London fencing club. Of course, Deed undertakes these misdemeanors against his professional code in supposedly good causes. These include helping his student daughter Charlie to protest against genetically modified crops (and springing her from the cells when she is arrested) and working out how to free his vigilante defendant.

Episode 1 - Rough Justice
Judge John Deed is under pressure from the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) to acquit a man who has pleaded guilty to a brutal assault on his wife. The man in question, is a police informer on the verge of infiltrating the Real IRA. For political reasons MI5 want him to walk, and Deed learns from his friend Row Colemore (the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police) that he has been persuaded to plead guilty to prevent the case from going to trial. Although Deed can understand the LCD's position, he's more concerned about what will happen to the defendant's wife if he bows to pressure and sets him free. Adamant that the LCD should not influence the case, he breaks with protocol and allows her to take the stand. Deed's refusal to be influenced by the LCD brings him up against the Lord Chancellor's Permanent Secretary. Sir Ian Rochester is furious that Deed will not fall into step with the LCD and criticises him for conducting Abbott's sentencing as if it were a trial. But Rochester is also out to get Deed for other reasons. He suspects that Deed might be having an affair with his beautiful young wife Francesca. In a bid to incriminate the judge and gather evidence that could be used to damage his professional standing, he instructs the Clerk of Court to spy on him.
Deed is simultaneously trying a sensitive date rape case which is being prosecuted by his friend and protege Jo Mills QC. Three men are accused of drugging and raping a young woman after a night out at a club. The defence - led by arrogant young barrister Heathcote Machin (Alec Newman) - claims she had consensual sex with all three men and that she invented the rape allegation after regretting what she had done. When the alleged rape victim is in the witness box Machin shows no regard for her feelings. When it comes to the turn of the three defendants, however, Machin is reluctant to have them do testify, in case their different versions of events fail to add up. Deed is insistent that the jury should hear their testimony - it is only fair that the prosecution should have the chance to cross-examine the defendants. He also remembers a fact from the past which is guaranteed to swing the case in the victim's favour. Meanwhile, despite attempts by the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service to bury the facts in the case against Abbott, it becomes clear that Abbott's wife has suffered terribly from a long history of violent abuse at the hands of her husband. Now Deed is really stuck between a rock and a hard place. If, as the LCD wants, he lets Abbott off with
a non-custodial sentence, his wife could be in real danger. But if he follows his instincts and has Abbott imprisoned, he risks losing favour and potentially damaging his own career in the process. To make matters worse, Rochester is on the warpath, having learnt that Deed has been caught on camera in a liaison with Francesca.

Episode 2 - Duty of Care
Jo Mills QC is prosecuting a manslaughter case involving the manager and foreman of a building site, following the death of a young man crushed by a falling wall on his first day at work. Mills is convinced that the wrong men are in the dock and that Mike Briggs, the Managing Director with overall responsibility for the site, should be the one held accountable.. It is clear that the accident is the direct result of lapses in Health and Safety procedures on the site and that on numerous occasions, Briggs had ordered the manager and foreman not to waste time and money training, or doing safety checks. The dead man's mother, Angela Cootes, is actively campaigning for justice for her son, and has discovered that accidents and near-misses on sites managed by Briggs PLC are four times higher than the industry norm, and that Briggs has successfully avoided taking personal responsibility for any of them. The Crown Prosecution Service, however, is reluctant to bring charges against such a well respected and highly profitable businessman. Mills wants to see Briggs brought to book and knows that Judge John Deed is the only judge on the circuit with the guts to reinstate a charge of corporate manslaughter and put him in the dock. Meanwhile, alarm bells start to ring in the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD), which is concerned that the case against Briggs could cause considerable political embarrassment, particularly as Briggs is currently up for a Knighthood.
To complicate matters, Deed's ex-wife Georgina Channing QC is appointed as Briggs's defence counsel and Mills and Channing face each other across the courtroom with ill-concealed hatred. With influential people at the top working over-time to get the charges against him dropped, it looks like Briggs will walk free once again, and things look like they shift in his favour when the LCD unearths an authority which might knock the case out of court. But when Deed comes up with a better authority, Channing accuses him of showing undue bias in favour of Mills, and the courtroom battle starts to get personal. Meanwhile, Briggs continues to pull strings in high places to try to influence Deed's judgement. Even Deed's ex-father in law, Sir Joseph Channing, tries to persuade him not to rule against Briggs; threatening to use his influence to impede his progress to become a Law Lord. And, as always, Sir Ian Rochester is in the background trying to find ways to bring Deed into line.
Deed's daughter Charlie gives him a dog to look after that has been rescued from a research laboratory. The police are already on the trail of the stolen dog and Deed's personal detective Steven Ashurst - seeing the stitching on the dog's ear where the lab's identification tattoo has been removed - reports the fact to the LCD. Finally it looks as if Rochester might be in a good position to bargain with Deed and influence the outcome of the trial against Briggs.

Episode 3 - Appropriate Response
Robert Romero, a serial rapist sentenced to twelve years imprisonment by Judge John Deed is released on parole after serving eight years. Prison life has not been kind to Romero and he has come out intent on getting even with the Judge who sent him down. When Romero turns up at the Crown Court and sees Deed with Charlie, he realises that the best way to get to Deed is through his daughter, and he follows her back to her hall of residence. Meanwhile, Deed is presiding over a case brought against two police officers on trial for allegedly assaulting a hunt saboteur, leaving him in a coma. The police are closing ranks to protect their own, and the two officers are confident that the law cannot touch them. What they do not foresee is deed's impartiality. When Deed learns that a pivotal witness in the case is unable to testify because he's been arrested the day before, he is convinced that the witness has been interfered with and he refers the matter to the Police Complaints Authority for investigation. Now is not the time, however, for Deed to make an enemy of the police; Romero has already broken into Charlie's room and attempted to poison Deed's dog, and he's also starts turning up in court in an attempt to intimidate the judge. Deed needs to have the police on his side now more than ever, and refusing to give these two officers bail will not make him popular. Sir Ian Rochester of the Lord Chancellor's Department is also pressurising Deed to release the officers and even his good friend Row Colemore advises that it wouldn't be wise for Deed to resist, particularly given that he relies on the police for his own personal protection. Deed, predictably, won't be influenced, saying that if he can't guarantee adequate protection from the police, he can always look after himself. However events start to take a more sinister turn, and when the police fail to take action against Romero, Deed is forced to take the law into his own hands. When Romero approaches him at the gym to goad him about the break-ins at Charlie's room, Deed loses his cool and almost throttles him to death. The police refuse to take action because there is no evidence to connect Romero to the scene of the crime, and to add insult to injury Romero lodges an official complaint against Deed about the attack at the gym. As far as Deed is concerned, he is only protecting his own. But from the Lord Chancellor's perspective, getting involved with ex-criminals is not the way for a High Court judge to behave, and for a moment Deed even considers that he may have to resign over the matter. Things take a dramatic turn for the worse when Deed receives a chilling phone call telling him that Charlie's been kidnapped and taken to a disused factory where her life is in danger. Without pausing to consider the repercussions, Deed rushes to her rescue - and headlong into Romero's trap.

Episode 4 - Hidden Agenda
An attractive young doctor, Helena Bellew, is charged with murder following the death of an old man in her care.The old man had cancer and died from a morphine overdose. His niece, however, claims that her uncle was murdered by Dr Bellew, and the case against her looks convincing: she is sole beneficiary of the old man's will; her lover, Dr Medalovich, signed the death certificate; and, most incriminating of all, Medalovich purchased an expensive sports car just weeks before the old man's death and cancelled it straight after Bellew was charged. Dr Bellew, however, maintains that she knew nothing of the old man's will and that she had administered the usual dose of morphine on the night of his death. Her defence counsel, Jo Mills QC, is inclined to believe her, as is the presiding judge, John Deed. It does not seem plausible that she would have worked in league with her lover to kill the old man. The case has particular resonance for Deed, whose own father is currently dying of cancer and dependent on morphine for pain relief. Jo Mills calls an expert pathologist who testifies that the old man's death was as likely to have resulted from a gradual build up of morphine over time, as it was from the deliberate administration of too much of the drug in one dose. Therefore, with no evidence to prove the doctor's alleged negligence, the prosecution's case falls and the charge against Dr Bellew is dropped. The matter does not rest there, however, and events take an awkward turn when Dr Bellew makes contact with Deed and confesses to the murder, explaining that the old man had asked her to assist with his suicide. Deed faces a serious dilemma: his duty as a judge requires that he hand Dr Bellew over to the police, but his instincts tell him that she has acted with compassion and ought not to face prosecution as a result. Whatever he does, he has to proceed with caution because Sir Ian Rochester of the Lord Chancellor's Department is already taking an active interest in Deed's developing relationship with Dr Bellew, and it's considered highly improper for a judge to socialise with a defendant he's so recently acquitted. Meanwhile, a friend of Deed's daughter - a mature student with a nine-month-old baby boy - is in need of the judge's help. She is HIV positive and refusing to obey a court order to have her baby tested for HIV. Social Services are threatening to take the baby into care unless the mother consents to the test. Deed's daughter Charlie intends to help with her friend's appeal and act as her advisor in court, but it is soon revealed that Charlie's friend has other reasons for not wanting to have the child tested and Deed has to think quickly if he's to succeed in preventing the baby from being taken into care.

Directed by Mary McMurray, Jonny Campbell
Written by GF Newman
Produced by GF Newman
Executive Produced by Mal Young , Ruth Caleb

"There are some television dramas which can still touch nerves. Judge John Deed has all the hallmarks of compulsive watchability ... cracking dialogue, a complex individual at the centre and astonishing performances ... Martin Shaw has finally succeeded in making us forget that he ever went about in a leather jacket and bubble-perm slapping Russians and winking at Bodie. That wig really suits him. " Herald

"Martin Shaw is all come to bed eyes and roguish charm - a sexy superhero in red robes and a wig." Mirror

"A quick prediction - Martin Shaw will get a BAFTA for his stunning performance in BBC1's Judge John Deed, or I'll eat my word processor." Daily Star

"Martin Shaw's Judge John Deed is so cool that you could slip an ice lolly under each armpit at breakfast and they would still not have defrosted by bedtime. Is there a judge in Britain with such an expensive haircut or such a come-to-bed smile?" The Times

"Judge John Deed is the heroic James Bond of the law, complete with his own adoring Mrs Moneypenny: he is exasperating, but irresistible; always in trouble with his bosses, but invaluable ... Deed - like the incorruptible marshal
who brings justice to a lawless Wild West - is a naturally sympathetic character. Shaw has the skill to milk this advantage, while knowing where to stop before the saintliness becomes insufferable." The Times

"This may be a ratings-grabbing potboiler, à la Prime Suspect or Inspector Morse, but it's stimulating viewing nonetheless." Guardian Guide

"Shaw's casually charismatic performance ... makes Deed an interestingly different dramatic hero, the decency inflected by a streak of childishness and an obvious pleasure in his own importance. And Newman has a natural grasp of dramatic tension, so that the hunt for a relevant precedent and the in-court jousting are genuinely exciting, at least some of the time. Although Deed behaves in ways that a real judge couldn't possibly get away with, this is nevertheless the first legal drama I can think of that makes decent drama out of actual law. What makes it really rewarding is the way the legal main plot and the melodramatic subplots play off each other." Independent

"Must see TV." Mirror

"Shaw is totally convincing, and it's his performance that makes the series so watchable." Guardian

"If you have never seen Judge John Deed (BBC1), try to imagine what Ally McBeal would be like if Ken Loach directed it; and now try to imagine that the result is funny and watchable. I know, it doesn't sound very likely, does it? But its preposterousness is a large part of the appeal of GF Newman's drama ... It is flashy, trashy and at times very silly; but it has a narrative grip and an educative zeal that make it irresistible." Independent