Crown Prosecutor (UK television)

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Crown Prosecutor
Genre	legal drama
Creator(s)	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
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Original run	February 23rd, 1995 – April 27th,1995
Links
IMDb profile

Crown Prosecutor was 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.

[edit] Structure

Each episode generally featured a primary plot centered on an unfolding court case, along wtih 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 and Order, the character development never expanded to the level of the soap opera.

This was in part due to the fact that 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.

[edit] Historical Context

The show was at the time novel in being the first series to regularly examine the lives of modern British Crown proscutors. 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.