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  • Published: 15 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781785298974
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 3 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch
  • RRP: $49.99

Rumpole: The Gentle Art of Blackmail & other stories

Four BBC Radio 4 dramatisations





Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young Horace Rumpole in this second collection of court cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the young Horace Rumpole in this second stellar collection of court cases, also starring Timothy West as the older Rumpole

Rumpole and the Man of God
It is 1959, and Rumpole must defend a clergyman accused of shoplifting who, although he clearly did not commit the crime, is curiously reluctant to be cross-examined under oath. Meanwhile, Hilda (she who must be obeyed) has big news…

Rumpole and the Explosive Evidence
Rumpole defends a well-known safe blower and exposes the underhand behaviour of one Dirty Dickerson, a senior police officer who is quite prepared to tamper with evidence.

Rumpole and the Gentle Art of Blackmail
In 1964 Rumpole returns to Oxford, where he studied law, to defend a young gardener who is accused of blackmailing the Master of St Joseph’s College. Their friendship had provoked rumours of homosexuality – still illegal in those days – and the Master says he has been threatened with a public accusation.

Rumpole and the Expert Witness
Rumpole is asked to defend a GP, Dr Ned Dacre, who is accused of murdering his wife, Sally. The plot thickens when the local pathologist turns out to have history with Dr Ned…

Durations: 3 hours approx.

  • Published: 15 April 2018
  • ISBN: 9781785298974
  • Imprint: BBC CD
  • Format: Audio CD
  • Length: 3 hr 0 min
  • Narrators: Timothy West, Benedict Cumberbatch
  • RRP: $49.99

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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