Crown Prosecutor (UK TV series)
| Crown Prosecutor | |
|---|---|
| Created by |
Nick Collins Tracy Hoffman Caroline Oulton |
| Starring |
Tom Chadbon David Daker Deborah Grant Paris Jefferson Shaun Parkes Michael Praed Jessica Stevenson |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Esta Charkham |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 23 February 1995 – 27 April 1995 |
Crown Prosecutor is a legal drama whose sole season in 1995 ran for ten episodes on BBC One. It was also produced by the BBC, rather than being independently produced and subsequently bought by the Corporation. It featured an ensemble cast of various Crown prosecutors who brought cases before local magistrates in the United Kingdom.
Structure
Each episode generally featured a primary plot centred on an unfolding court case, along with two subplots that advanced the development of the show's cast of characters.
Sometimes the subplots involved other, typically less serious, court cases—such as the vandalism charges brought against people who ate a chocolate sculpture in episode seven. But these subplots often were entirely outside the courtroom, and served to reveal different facets of the prosecutor's lives. Sticky living arrangements, new romance, old flames, and professional temptation were all featured in the series. Though these plots allowed viewers a glimpse into the prosecutors' lives to a much greater degree than would be possible on the somewhat comparable Law & Order, the character development never expanded to the level of the soap opera.
This was in part because Crown Prosecutor had a notably unusual run-time, compared with other legal dramas of its era. Episodes were 30 minutes long, shorter by 12 to 15 minutes than many courtroom dramas which ran on commercial television in 1995. Despite this shorter format, resolution to all of the primary plots, and most of the secondary ones, was given by the end of each episode.
Historical context
The show was at the time novel in being the first series to regularly examine the lives of modern British Crown prosecutors. While lawyers "for the prosecution" had been seen on UK television, these were depictions of a different era in British jurisprudence. Throughout the bulk of 20th century, in most parts of England and Wales, prosecution of criminal cases was handled by the police or, in some cases, an entity directly attached to the Home Office. Crown Prosecutor was thus the first serious examination of what it was like to work in the Crown Prosecution Service, a completely police-independent body, which itself had only been established in 1985.