"Rumpole of the Bailey" es un personaje de novela (y serie de televisión) en Inglaterra. Es un abogado y "Bailey" se refiere al "Old Bailey", el famoso juzgado londinense.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 10 mins (2004-03-29 18:11:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY

British Legal/Mystery Comedy

Rumpole of the Bailey, a mix of British courtroom comedy and drama, aired on Thames Television in 1978. The program made a successful transatlantic voyage and is popular on the American Public Broadcasting Service as part of the Mystery! anthology series.

All episodes feature the court cases of Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern), a short, round, perennially exasperating, shrewd but lovable defense barrister. His clients are often caught in contemporary social conflicts: a father accused of devil worshipping; the Gay News Ltd. sued for blasphemous libel; a forger of Victorian photographs who briefly fooled the National Portrait Gallery; a pornographic publisher. His deep commitment for justice leads him to wholeheartedly defend hopeless cases and the spirit of the law, as opposed to his fellow barristers who stubbornly defend the letter -of the law. Rumpole is given to frequent oratorical outbursts from the Oxford Book of English Verse and manages to aim the elegant passages at upper-class hypocritical trumpeters, buffoons and other barristers, and prosecution inspiring justices. He comments on the phenomenon of \"judgitis [pomposity] which, like piles, is an occupational hazard on the bench.\" His suggested cure is \"banishment to the golf course.\"