This core cast of comic foils helps fully establish the series staple format where the events of the main plot, Rumpole's case-of-the-week, is mirrored by an out-of-court sub-plot involving the supporting characters. An example of this can be seen in Rumpole and the Course of True Love, where the sordid story of a teacher accused of sleeping with one of his pupils is contrasted with Erskine-Brown getting Miss Trant pregnant, and the episode ends with them marrying.
Changing attitudes since this was made in the late 1970s can be seen in the way the teacher, played by Nigel Havers, is treated far more sympathetically by the script than one would expect him to be in an equivalent drama made today, with the programme going out of its way to demonstrate that he was seduced by the girl, conniving with her boyfriend (also a school pupil) to get their hated teacher into trouble.
Also appearing in that episode were John "Sir Arnold" Nettleton and Peter "Sir Frank" Cellier, both familar to me from Yes Prime Minister.
Other guest appearances of note in season two include Derek Farr and Tony Caunter, who played the Ensors senior and junior respectively in the first season of Blakes 7, only a year before going on to be in this.
On the bench, Judge Bullingham (Bill Fraser) makes his second appearance, but the main adversary for Rumpole this season is found in the form of Judge Vosper (Donald "Krasis" Eccles) in three episodes, though he does not return again after season two.
It's difficult to pick a single standout episode from this set of six because the standard is so high for all of them. The fourth episode, Rumpole and the Fascist Beast, sees Rumpole defending a parliamentary candidate for an (unnamed) far-right party who stands accused of inciting racial hatred. When Rumpole gets him off by making the jury see him as a joke, a dreamer, and a relic of the bygone age of the British Empire, he commits suicide - another example of something that is becoming a familiar format point of Rumpole, where the defendant would rather have been found guilty than not guilty.
Roger Sloman is in this playing one of the fascists. He was also a fascist in a 1976 episode of Crown Court that I happened to watch recently, which is either a coincidence or else an unlucky bit of typecasting. Does he perhaps look, or sound, like a typical 1970s neo-nazi?
We get a format-breaker for the third episode, Rumpole and the Show Folk, where Rumpole is the only regular character to feature since the story is set outside of London, away from Rumpole's chambers and the Old Bailey. The absence of Featherstone, Erskine-Brown, etc. (not to mention Hilda Rumpole!) is filled by several guest characters - Eleanor "exquisite" Bron is an actress accused of murdering her actor husband, John Wells a fabulously camp theatre manager (who almost manages the impossible task of stealing the show from McKern), and Bernard "Marcus Scarman" Archard as a local barrister.
Probably the most dramatically powerful moment of the season comes here when, after having concluded his case for the defence and while he and his client are waiting for the jury to reach their verdict, Rumpole realises that his client is probably guilty after all; that the actress gave a performance that even fooled Rumpole.
There is also a cat in this episode, so of course it was great!
The last episode, Rumpole and the Age for Retirement, teases the audience with the possibility that Rumpole will retire for good, bringing the series to a permanent end. This sets the precedent for future season finales to fake out the viewers with the prospect of similar final ends (season four's Rumpole's Last Case being the most obvious of these). Rumpole's family, friends and colleagues from his chambers, and even Judge Vosper, all conspire to present Rumpole with retirement as a fait accompli, with him and Hilda set to move to America to live with their son Nick. I can't see it lasting, and not just because the next episode is called Rumpole's Return...
A change does come to the series when one of the chambers regulars, Rumpole's friend George Frobisher (Moray Watson), leaves to become a judge. Having been in eight episodes across the first two seasons, we will see him again only a couple of times more. This shakes up the status quo, permanently, and is a hint of things to come.
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