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  • Published: 2 July 2020
  • ISBN: 9781787534537
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 1 hr 30 min
  • Narrator: Desmond Barrit
  • RRP: $37.00

Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation





Desmond Barrit stars as Horace Rumpole in this full-cast BBC Radio dramatisation.

Desmond Barrit stars as Horace Rumpole in this full-cast, feature-length radio drama

Rumpole has no special objection to Christmas – except that with the Old Bailey closed, he has no opportunity to exercise his skills in court. But over the course of one unusual holiday, he nonetheless manages to triumph in two very different cases…

Dragooned into spending Christmas in Norfolk, at the home of one of Hilda’s old schoolfriends, Rumpole is feeling less than festive. Chilly Coldsands Rectory does not offer much in the way of enjoyment – but a trip to the local church and a surprise encounter with an old acquaintance leads to a God-given opportunity to indulge in a little seasonal, charitable blackmail.

A New Year outing to see Aladdin also provides more excitement than expected. The traditional British pantomime is one of Rumpole’s favourite institutions, but he has a vague feeling that there’s something odd about this particular production. A post-panto drink, some overheard remarks and a glance at the programme confirm his suspicions – and put him on the path to solving an audacious crime…

Starring Desmond Barrit as Rumpole and Joanna David as Hilda, with Tim McInnerny as Donald Compton and Nigel Anthony as Fred Timson.


Written by John Mortimer
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
Produced by Catherine Bailey
Pantomime music written and played by Neil Brand

A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4

  • Published: 2 July 2020
  • ISBN: 9781787534537
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 1 hr 30 min
  • Narrator: Desmond Barrit
  • RRP: $37.00

About the author

John Mortimer

John Mortimer is a playwright, novelist and former practising barrister. During the war he worked with the Crown Film Unit and published a number of novels, before turning to theatre. He has written many film scripts, and plays both for radio and television, including A Voyage Round My Father, the Rumpole plays, which won him the British Academy Writer of the Year Award, and the adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.He has written four volumes of autobiography, including Clinging to the Wreckage and Where There's a Will (2003). His novels include the Leslie Titmuss trilogy, about the rise of an ambitious Tory MP: Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets, and the acclaimed comic novel, Quite Honestly (2005). He has also published numerous books featuring his best-loved creation Horace Rumpole, including Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002) and Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004). All these books are available in Penguin.He lives in what was once his father's house in the Chilterns. He has received a knighthood for his services to the arts. His authorized biography, written by Valerie Grove, will be published by Viking in Spring 2007.

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