A seminal, four-part drama series about the British judicial system - "there is a fearsome ring of truth about it" - examining endemic corruption from the perspectives of the police, the criminal, the solicitor and prisoner. G.F. Newman - later to write and produce 'Judge John Deed' and 'New Street Law' - secured his place in television history with this searingly controversial 1978 series. The four-part drama broke with the traditional 'heroic and respectful' view of the police and portrayed widespread corruption and abuse within the system. In the wake of a bungled armed robbery, the series focuses on Jack Lynn (Peter Dean), a villain already known to the police; Inspector Fred Pyle (Derek Martin), a cynical Scotland Yard Detective determined to nick him, and Alex Gladwell (Ken Campbell), a cunning lawyer who's perverting the system in order to get him off. As we view the story from four different perspectives - The Detective's Tale; The Villain's Tale; The Brief's Tale; The Prisoner's Tale - shocking questions begin to gather force: was Lynn even at the robbery? Do the police have any real evidence? Do the courts really want justice done? Do prisons change or simply reinforce criminal behaviour?
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