Criminal Justice

Ben Wishaw in Criminal Justice (Photo: Todd Anthony/BBC)

Peter Moffat's new five-part drama, Criminal Justice, starts on BBC One at 9pm tonight and it looks like it's going to be worth staying in for.

Here are previews from Erwin James in The Guardian and Jasper Rees in The Times.

Moffat's desire to dramatise the workings of a system compromised by human frailty and economic imperative was initially stimulated by his own memories of defending clients of whom he knew nothing. “It is a very odd one. You meet your client only once, probably only for an hour before you represent them at a trial, and then your relationship is shaped by what you need them to be saying in order to fit what the defence is going to be.” As for his relationship with the police, it was restricted to cross-examination. “You're trying to make them look stupid or appear to be a liar. If you're defending as I was that's where your relation with police begins and ends.” Not that relations between police and prosecuting barristers are on a much firmer footing: policemen, he adds, refer to the crown's lawyers as the Can't Prosecute Service.