Rough Justice (TV series)

Rough Justice
Created by Peter Hill
Martin Young
Presented by Martin Young (1982-1986)
David Jessel (1987-1992)
John Ware (1993-1997)
Kirsty Wark (1998-2007)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s) Peter Hill (1980-1986)
Steve Heywood (1987-1992)
Charles Hunter
Dinah Lord
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 1982 – 2007

Rough Justice was a BBC television series which investigated alleged miscarriages of justice. It was broadcast between 1982 and 2007, and played a role in securing the release of 18 people involved in 13 cases involving miscarriages of justice.[1] The programme was similar in aim and approach to The Court of Last Resort, the NBC TV series that aired in the US between 1957 and 1958. It is credited with contributing to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997.[2] Rough Justice was cancelled in 2007 due to budget restraints, leading to criticism from the media as the announcement came just as the BBC launched an £18 million Gaelic-language channel which would serve only 86,000 viewers.[3]

Origins

The programme was devised and produced by Peter Hill, an investigative journalist, in 1979, motivated by Ludovic Kennedy's earlier television work in the same field and the work of Tom Sargant at reform group JUSTICE.[4] In 1992 Hill recalled: "At that time there were equally important programmes being made by John Willis at Yorkshire Television and Ray Fitzwater at Granada. We were all investigating mistakes made before a case comes to trial. That was the problem in the early eighties - the legacy of police misconduct from the seventies."[5] During this period, criminal justice procedure in the United Kingdom was uncodified. Until the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), and the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service in 1986, the police "decided what evidence to disclose."[6] Following the introduction of PACE, David Jessel, who replaced Hill, acknowledged that the Act had "probably reduced police misconduct" but said that "the evidence of a plethora of post-PACE case papers is that the same old wickednesses continue, although in different guises. It is remarkable how many suspects these days "confess" in police cars on their way to PACE-protected police stations; and duty solicitors have tales to tell about the co-operation afforded them at some stations."[7]

Format

Each programme concentrated on a separate case where a miscarriage of justice was alleged to have taken place. The first, titled The Case of the Handful of Hair, was broadcast on BBC1 on 7 April 1982, and concerned a 1977 murder case. It was watched by 11 million viewers.[1]

Cancellation

The programme was cancelled by the BBC in November 2007 as a cost-cutting measure. Marcel Berlins, writing in The Guardian, pointed out that the "effort and care which went into the programme's investigations" frequently "uncovered basic flaws in our system of investigating crime, exposed police incompetence and revealed the shortcomings of forensic science." It was this effort, Berlins believed, and the high financial cost that it entailed, that led to the BBC decision that "the crass value-for-money criterion was not being fulfilled. Yet Rough Justice is a perfect example of what public service broadcasting, which the BBC is supposed to espouse, is all about."[8] Simon Ford, who had worked as the programme's executive producer, said: "For 27 years, a programme like Rough Justice has proved that television, as well as reporting on injustice, can actually change things. Without a dedicated team doing that, many individuals who are wrongly imprisoned will stay there and the British public will remain ignorant of the failings of our justice system. This is a tragedy for the prisoners themselves and our greater society."[2] The BBC was also criticised for cancelling the programme while spending £18 million to launch a Gaelic-language channel "aimed at only 86,000, mainly Scottish, viewers, a population the size of Crawley, [West Sussex]."[3]

Programmes

Retrial by TV: The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice

As part of the BBC Four Justice Season focusing on the state of justice in Britain, a programme called Retrial by TV: The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice aired on 3 April 2011 and examined the creation of the series, its relationship with the charity JUSTICE, and its troubled relations with the UK judiciary (as characterised by criticisms by law lords Denning and Lane), the police, the Home Office and the governors of the BBC.

References

  1. 1 2 Produced: Steve O'Hagan. Narrated: Robert Murphy (April 2011). "The Rise and Fall of Rough Justice". Time Shift. Season 11. Episode 1. BBC. BBC Four.
  2. 1 2 "BBC axes 'Rough Justice' after 27 years". BreakingNews.ie (Cork). 12 November 2007.
  3. 1 2 Martin, Nicole; Hope, Christopher (13 November 2007). "Rough Justice axed in BBC drive to save cash". The Daily Telegraph (London). p. 9.
  4. ↑ "A brief history of Rough Justice". Rough Justice. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  5. ↑ Hill, Peter (24 November 1992). "TV justice: rough and unready". The Guardian (Manchester).
  6. ↑ Verkaik, Robert (1 June 1999). "Law: A whole decade in the dock". The Independent (London). Retrieved 4 April 2011.
  7. ↑ Jessel, David (1 December 1992). "Law: Why we need TV investigations". The Guardian (Manchester).
  8. ↑ Berlins, Marcel (12 November 2007). "Writ large: BBC's cost-cutters guilty of rough justice". The Guardian (London). p. 15.
  9. ↑ Rachel Manning murder: Shahidul Ahmed found guilty, BBC New 4 September 2013, accessed 4 September 2013
  10. ↑ Rachel Manning murder trial: Jury told of sex assault, BBC News 5 February 2013, accesses 4 September 2013
  11. ↑ "Simon Hall confesses to Joan Albert murder 12 years on". BBC News. 8 August 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 26, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.