Legal Fictions at

The writer of Rumpole of the Bailey brings his insider knowledge to this hilarious double-bill of legal drama. The Dock Brief and Edwin use barbed wit and judicial humour to show that the law can make an ass of any of us.

In The Dock Brief, an incompetent barrister, Morganhall is asked to represent the lugubrious Mr Fowle who confesses to murdering his jovial wife. Although the two of them rehearse a masterly defence in the cell, when they reach the courtroom everything goes horribly wrong.

In Edwin, retired High Court Judge, Fennimore Truscott can't break the habit of trying as many people as he can - in his imagination. But when he turns his overly suspicious mind towards his wife's friendship with the next door neighbour, he opens up a can of worms.

For six decades John Mortimer has been one of Britain's most prolific and diverse writers and for almost forty years he was also a highly successful barrister and one of the country's best-known advocates for civil liberties and free speech. His best-loved works include Rumpole of the Bailey, his television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, the screenplay for Tea With Mussolini, and A Voyage Round My Father, his autobiographical stage play which was also adapted for television.

Edward Fox's recent theatre work includes You Never Can Tell with the 2005 Peter Hall Company in a successful West End season. His long list of theatre credits includes Eliot's The Family Reunion, and his highly acclaimed stage appearance in 1997 as Harold Macmillan, in Hugh Whitemore's A Letter of Resignation. Best-known amongst his films are The Go-Between, The Day of the Jackal, A Bridge too Far, Gandhi and The Shooting Party. Television includes Edward and Mrs Simpson (for which he won the 1978 BAFTA Award for Best Actor) and A Dance to the Music of Time.