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Law & Order: UK

Freema Agyeman as Alesha Phillips and Ben Daniels as James Steel in Law & Order: UK
  • Posted at 4:10pm
  • 19 March 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 7 comments

In the history of television legal dramas, there surely can't ever have been such a witless, hopeless couple as prosecutors James Steel and Alesha Phillips in Law & Order: UK.

Week after week anyone with even the merest nodding acquaintance with British law must be yelping with laughter at the pair's howling incompetence and sheer idiocy.

One of the highlights for me was in the most recent episode (Monday 16 March) when Phillips (Freema Agyeman, out of her depth) told her boss (Ben Daniels), who was sitting moodily on the steps of the Central Criminal Court having a desultory play on a Rubik cube (as top-flight barristers are wont to do): "They've granted him a bail!"

Not "they've granted him bail" but "they've granted him a bail". It's a sentence of staggering sloppiness because no-one has ever said "a bail" let alone a supposedly razor-sharp lawyer.

The clichéd hopelessness of Law & Order UK's legal bits are letting the series down badly. Generally it's nothing particularly special and is certainly nowhere near as good as its US parent Law & Order, but the actual crime detection parts of the week's stories are OK.

Bradley Walsh in particular is well worth watching as the quietly clever and dogged DS Ronnie Brooks. And why is everyone so surprised that he's good in a straight acting role? Did no-one see him in Coronation Street?

What I find particularly annoying about Law & Order: UK is that it fell headfirst into the trap of portraying prosecutors as noble crusaders who fight for the rights of victims while their defence counterparts are grasping sleazebags who will sell their services to the highest bidder.

Now, there may well be noble and crusading prosecuting barristers - though surely no-one is as insufferable as James Steel. But encouraging audiences to consider defence lawyers as amoral and self-serving men and women who knowingly defend the guilty just for what they can get out of it trashes one of the great cornerstones of British law - that everyone is entitled to a defence.

This might all sound niggling but such sheer wrongness is bothersome. As is the unbelievable portrayal of Steel and Phillips, who are supposed to be hotshots yet are routinely woefully under-prepared when they appear in court. For instance, recently neither of them realised that their only witness had a conviction for perjury. And they regularly attend court with absolutely no idea of the defence's case so they stand there, looking surprised and stupid.

Law & Order: UK has done well with audiences and will be returning for another series. But please, get rid of this pair.

**

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times - read her column in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale now.

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Comments

  • Posted on 06 April 2009
  • at 11:20pm
  • by Sharon

Being an avid fan of the U.S Law & Order series, I looked forward to the U.K version in the hope that this would be yet another string to the series and a different take on a programme I really enjoy. So I was determined to wait until all 6 episodes were aired before I made any judgements (I wanted to like it). Sadly it is not praise that prompted me to share my comments. Rather the disappointment and in particular in tonight's episode the sheer frustration of watching a series I admire, being represented by this sentimental, self serving, moralising mess. The whole point to Law and Order is to have distance from the subject matter - this is where it is at its best often presenting us with uncomfortable truths and then leaving us to make up our own minds. The U.K series failed to deliver nearly in every way. However there was a ray of sunshine in this otherwise murky endeavour, that was Bradley Walsh. He was about the only one who got what the series was suppose to be about, dry humour and observed comments, made the law section of the programme more than watchable. A shame I cannot say the same for the Order. Yes this series got good viewing figures, but I suspect this was because like me people who love the U.S series wanted to give it a fair chance. ITV needs to note that if the second series is the same as the first I suspect that our patience will very soon run out.

  • Posted on 06 April 2009
  • at 10:54am
  • by Bemused

Being married to a solicitor doesn't help. Each week my wife lies on the sofa shrieking with laughter at the howlers made by the prosecution. She made the point that were these two delightful people to present a case in real life the way they normally do on film, acquittals would come in thick and fast !

  • Posted on 28 March 2009
  • at 7:05pm
  • by Paula

I particularly liked Iain Glen's reference before the Court of Appeal to his "skeletal argument" rather than skeleton argument. Presumably, he was referring to the bare bones of the legal aspects of this series!

I think it doesn't work particularly well because the legal system in the UK just doesn't mirror that of the States. Still, I do enjoy it because the two coppers are good together, rather than the drippy CPS team.

  • Posted on 24 March 2009
  • at 3:01am
  • by Angela

I had no idea there WAS a Law and Order UK. I LOVE Law and Order. It's my all time favorite show. :)

  • Posted on 23 March 2009
  • at 5:44pm
  • by Mal

They made a big mistake in trying to copy the original Law & Order too closely. If they had Freema Agyeman as 'second naive young cop' and Ben Daniels as 'naive mid-Atlantic assistant prosecutor' it might go better. Then they might have an older heavyweight as chief prosecutor. Someone with intelligence, an edge, and quintessential Britishness. Stephen Fry? Also, I agree on the defence lawyers. You need slick-with-attitude, not sleezy-non-entities. Hugh Laurie? Helen Mirren?

  • Posted on 21 March 2009
  • at 11:40pm
  • by Viewer

"Freema Agyeman, out of her depth" - isn't she always? Doctor Who, Torchwood, Little Dorritt, now this. She has the looks but is woefully miscast.

  • Posted on 21 March 2009
  • at 10:46am
  • by Pepperpots

When this series began I was really looking forward to it. I love the US Law & Order and hoped this was every bit as good. I have enjoyed what I have watched so far, but primarily for Bradley Walsh's performance (I did see him in Corrie so knew he could act!). After each episode I have watched to date I felt the series was missing the mark somehow, but couldn't quite say how. I like the way it is shot, I thought the pace was good, I liked the cast, loved Bradley Walsh etc. etc.. Reading this post by Alison Graham was a light bulb moment. I think she has hit the nail on the head. There was a moment in one episode where the prosecution came up with some information late in the day and I was wondering why they only seemed to know this at that moment and not earlier. Ms Graham's more insightful mind has picked up on this kind of thing more readily and more frequently than I did and I agree that this is a weakness. I also agree with her point re the portrayal of the legal teams as good guys (prosecution) and bad guys (defense). I would like it so much more if it had a more "factual" approach - the suspect has been convicted and then we see the courtroom process. After all in other circumstances the legal teams could easily be portrayed the other way round i.e. a series on injustice would see prosecutors as bad guys. To me Law & Order is much more about showing the detection and prosecution of a crime from all angles. We the audience get involved in the entire process, not in deciding who on the side of justice is bad or good.

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