The usual tedium of the summer TV schedules has been relieved......

.....in part by the BBC's repeats of Only Fools and Horses - a delight at any time, but also by a new freeview channel called, rather inappropriately, Drama. An episode of Rumpole of the Bailey has been shown on weekdays and , along with Only Fools, I record them for later viewing to fill the empty evening hours. Of course Rumpole is more than just a spacefiller. It was always one of my very favourite shows and not merely because of the superb literary writing of John Mortimer but also because of the sublime casting of Leo McKern as the eponymous Rumpole, the Old Bailey hack and husband of She.

They seemed to know a thing or two about casting in those days because Leo McKern was not the only joy to be found in the environ of Equity Court. I also enjoyed Bill Fraser as the terrifying Judge 'The Mad Bull' Bullingham who acquired a purple hue the more he became exasperated with Rumpole's defence tactics. How Bill Fraser managed to emulate that apopleptic colour is a testament to his skill.

I must also mention the lovely Patricia Hodge, in her heyday, as Phyllida 'Portia' Erskine-Brown. Very beautiful and even striking in her gown and horsehair peruque. Talking of beautiful lawyers there were also occasional appearances by Rosalyn Landor as Fiona Always. It would be an omission of unforgivable dimension not to give a reference to the truly magnificent Marion Mathie as Hilda Rumpole - She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Yes I enjoyed everything about the Rumpole TV series - almost as much as I enjoy the books to this day. I saw the the writers of the failed comedy series Vicious were bemoaning the slating they received from viewers and wondering why the were not commissioned for a further series. If they had but watched a single episode of Rumpole or Only Fools they might have got a clue.

My evening pleasures are not totally unalloyed however. This summer seems to have given rise to a greater than usual quantity of 'reality' docu-dramas or whatever they are called. The latest of these cheap and trashy programmes is on channel 4 and laughingly entitled 'The Dealership' I say laughingly because a 'dealership' in motor trade terms is an outlet for specific new car manufacterers whereas this alleged documentary features a used car emporium, in Essex needless to say. I don't know how they are going to sustain this level of crap for three episodes as they already said all there is to be said in the first. In fact if they just produced a title and description saying Essex and used cars that would be quite sufficient and our imaginations would have done the rest. Now that would be cheap programming!