John Mortimer Legal career When did Mortimer start his legal career? Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. What firm did he work for? I don't know. What type of law did he practice? His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, Did that change later in his career? on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. What is "taking silk"? I don't know. Did he work on any major cases? Whitehouse v. Lemon When was this case? 1976, Did he win the case? Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal.
What was the case about?
What was John Mortimer's major case about?
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."  He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate. Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.  Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants' being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. CANNOTANSWER
he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name"
Sir John Clifford Mortimer  (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.

Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (née Smith) and (Herbert) Clifford Mortimer (1884–1961), a divorce and probate barrister who became blind in 1936 when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family.

John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Harrow School, where he joined the Communist Party, forming a one-member cell. He first intended to be an actor (his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II gained glowing reviews in The Draconian) and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it, advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife... [the law] gets you out of the house."

At 17, Mortimer went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was sent down from Oxford by John Lowe, Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC, were discovered by the young man's housemaster. But Mortimer was still allowed to take his Bachelor of Arts degree in law in October 1943. His close friend Michael Hamburger believed he had been very harshly treated.

Early writing career
With weak eyes and doubtful lungs, Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II. He worked for the Crown Film Unit under Laurie Lee, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries.

I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama.

He based his first novel, Charade, on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.

Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955, adapting his own novel Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme. His debut as an original playwright came with The Dock Brief starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, and later televised with the same cast. It later appeared in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. The Dock Brief was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 for a touring double bill with Legal Fictions. It won the Prix Italia in 1957, and its success on radio, stage, and television led Mortimer to prefer writing for performance rather than writing novels.

Mortimer's play A Voyage Round My Father, first broadcast on radio in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relations with his blind father. It was televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a lengthier version, the play became a stage success – first at Greenwich Theatre with Dignam, then in 1971 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Alec Guinness). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing, which also starred Olivier.

Legal career
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career covered testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake criminal law. His highest profile came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."

He has sometimes been cited wrongly as one in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team. He did, however, successfully defend publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in an 1968 appeal against a conviction for publishing Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.

In 1971, Mortimer managed to defend the editors of the satirical paper Oz against a charge of "conspiracy to corrupt and debauch the morals of the young of the Realm", which might have carried a sentence of 12 years' hard labour. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) against charges of blasphemous libel for publishing James Kirkup's The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name; Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence, which was overturned on appeal. He successfully defended Virgin Records in a 1977 obscenity hearing for using the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and the manager of the Nottingham branch of Virgin record shop chain for displaying and selling the record. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984.

Later writing career
Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, inspired by his father Clifford, whose speciality is defending those accused in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor – in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim "but he turned out to be dead so he couldn't take it on" – Australian-born Leo McKern played Rumpole with gusto and proved popular. The idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey, for Thames Television, in which McKern kept the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series with former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as protagonist.

In 1975 and 1976, Mortimer adapted eight of Graham Greene’s short stories for episodes of Shades of Greene presented by Thames Television. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles's The Ebony Tower starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal.

Mortimer developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court. His work in total includes over 50 books, plays and scripts.  Besides 13 episodes of Rumpole dramatized for radio in 1980, several others of his works were broadcast on the BBC, including the true crime series John Mortimer Presents: The Trials Of Marshall Hall and Sensational British Trials.

Personal life
Mortimer in 1949 married Penelope Fletcher as her second husband, later better known as Penelope Mortimer. They had a son, Jeremy Mortimer, and a daughter, Sally Silverman. The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into a film of the same name, is best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He and his second wife lived in the Buckinghamshire village of Turville Heath. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.

In September 2004, the Sunday Telegraph journalist Tim Walker revealed that Mortimer had fathered another son,  Ross Bentley, who was conceived during a secret affair Mortimer had with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier. He was born in November 1961. Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician.

In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer."

Honours
Awarded a CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.

Death
Mortimer suffered a stroke in October 2008 and died on 16 January 2009, aged 85.

Attributes
John Mortimer was a member of English PEN.  He was patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma and president of the Royal Court Theatre, having been the chairman of its board in 1990–2000.

Bibliography

Charade, Mortimer's first novel, Bodley Head, London (1947); Viking, New York (1986); 
Rumming Park, Bodley Head, London (1948)
Answer Yes Or No, Bodley Head, London (1950)
Like Men Betrayed, Collins, London (1953); Viking, New York (1988); 
The Narrowing Stream, Collins, London (1954); Viking, New York (1989); 
Three Winters, Collins, London (1956)
Heaven and Hell (including The Fear of Heaven and The Prince of Darkness) (1976)
Will Shakespeare (1977)
Rumpole of the Bailey (1978); 
The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
Rumpole's Return (1980)
Regina v Rumpole (1981)
Rumpole for the Defence (1982)
Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part Of Life (autobiography) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1982); ; Houghton Mifflin, New York (1982); 
The First Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1983)
Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
A Choice of Kings, in Alan Durband, ed., Playbill 3 (Nelson Thornes, 1966), 
Edwin and Other Plays (1984)
In Character (1984); 
Paradise Postponed (1985); 
Character Parts (1986); 
Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986)
Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
The Second Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1987)
Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988)
Glasnost (BBC Radio Four, 1988)
Summer's Lease (1988); 
Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in The Trials of Rumpole (1979) 
Rumpole a La Carte (1990)
Titmuss Regained (1990)
Great Law And Order Stories (1990)
The Rapstone Chronicles (omnibus; 1991)
Rumpole On Trial (1992)
Dunster (1992); 
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (1992) (with G K Chesterton and Ralph McInerny)
The Oxford Book of Villains (1992)
The Best of Rumpole: A Personal Choice (1993)
Under the Hammer (1994)
Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life (autobiography), Viking, London (1994); Viking, NY (1995); 
Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) 
Felix in the Underworld (1996)
The Third Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1997)
The Sound of Trumpets (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobiography), Viking Penguin, London (2000); ; Viking Press, New York (2001); 
Rumpole Rests His Case (2002)
Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002)
The Brancusi Trial (2003)
Where There's a Will (autobiography), Viking, London (2003) ; Viking, New York (2005); 
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004); 
Quite Honestly (2005); 
The Scales of Justice (2005); 
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006); 
The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole (2007; in United States as Rumpole Misbehaves)
Rumpole at Christmas (2009)

Select screenwriting credits
The Innocents (additional dialogue, 1961)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
John and Mary (1969)
 Edwin (1984, TV film)
Maschenka (1987) (Vladimir Nabokov novel adaptation directed by John Goldschmidt)
Tea With Mussolini (1999)

References

The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, HarperCollins (1991) 
Halliwell's Television Companion, Third edition, Grafton (1986) 
Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, ed Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) 
John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate by Graham Lord, Orion (2005)

External links

John Mortimer plays in Bristol University Theatre Archive

John Mortimer biography
Finding Aid to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at The Bancroft Library
Inventory to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Recordings and Photos of the visit by Sir John to the College Historical Society in October 2007

Obituary: Sir John Mortimer (BBC)
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (1923-2009), barrister, playwright and writer Sitter in 7 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)

1923 births
2009 deaths
Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
British Book Award winners
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English barristers
English dramatists and playwrights
English short story writers
English television writers
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Gibbs School
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Harrow School
People from Hampstead
People from Wycombe District
Prix Italia winners
Booker authors' division
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male short story writers
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English male writers
British male television writers
John
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English lawyers
Members of the Inner Temple
Queen's Counsel 1901–2000
The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley is a series of musical mystery videos starring twin actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The series was also written as children's books. A set of books was written as a companion piece to the show, showing the twins on the cover.
The video series was distributed by BMG Kidz and KidVision.

Format
Each video begins with the girls singing the theme song. Following the theme song, the girls receive a phone call, informing them of some urgent mystery that needs to be solved. Their motto is "We’ll solve any crime by dinnertime." Each video features the girls singing multiple songs about the mystery they are working on. They never fail to solve the mystery with their sidekick, Clue (a Basset Hound), and, indeed, the solution is usually something either very obvious or very trivial, to give the video a humorous ending.

Plot outlines
Each episode is named "The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley" followed by the name of the mystery.

1. The Case of Thorn Mansion (1994)
A ghost is supposedly haunting a mansion in Transylvania, and the girls must figure out who or what is actually behind it. The "ghost" ends up being the caretaker of the mansion who is also a beekeeper. (The trip to Transylvania was about 9,000 miles from their attic)

2. The Case of the Logical I Ranch (1994)
Pungent smells and weird noises plague the "Logical I Ranch". Some employees of the ranch think it is being caused by a dragon running loose. (The trip to Dead Gulch USA was about 1,372 miles from their attic)

3. The Case of the SeaWorld Adventure (1995)
The girls' parents work at SeaWorld as over-worked dolphin trainers. One day, the girls run into a dead body in the woods that eventually leads them and their parents to a cruise ship while trying to solve the rigged mystery. The boss of the girls' parents had planted evidence to get them all on the cruise, so they could take a much-needed family vacation.

4. The Case of the Mystery Cruise (1995)
The sequel to The Case of the SeaWorld Adventure. Mary-Kate and Ashley's father has a laptop containing vital information. It gets stolen while on a cruise ship and must be retrieved. The twins believe a friend of their father's was responsible, but it later turned out to be a staged occurrence.

5. The Case of the Fun House Mystery (1995)
Something is making scary noises inside the fun house at an amusement park, and the girls must figure out who or what it is. Using the clue of "Monster Mush" and "bananas", they find out the monster lurking inside the fun house is really an orangutan. (The trip to Tons-Of-Fun was about 1,379 miles from their attic)

6. The Case of the Christmas Caper (1995)
Hackers break into Santa's computer to steal the "Spirit of Christmas", the plane Santa uses to fly to deliver all the presents to the children of the world on Christmas Eve. It is up to girls to show what the holiday is all about. (The trip to North Pole Drive was about 1,000 miles from their attic)

7. The Case of the U.S. Space Camp Mission (1996)
A space shuttle has been grounded, due to a mysterious tapping sound coming from its outer surface. Unless the girls can figure out what is going on, the space shuttle will be not be able to lift-off. To figure out the mystery, they get help learning about space travel through the U.S. Space Camp program. (The trip to Huntsville was about 1,643 miles from their attic)

8. The Case of the Shark Encounter (1996)
Three pirates claim that the sharks at a SeaWorld exhibit are singing, and the girls must figure out where the strange sounds are coming from. (The trip to Orlando was about 2,500 miles from their attic)

9. The Case of the Hotel Who-Done-It (1996)
The girls travel to Hawaii, where they meet a hotel manager who has been dealing with a string of recent disappearances around the hotel. (The trip to Hawaii was about 2,556 miles from their attic)

10. The Case of the Volcano Mystery (1997)
The girls receive a call from some miners of marshmallows that a snowball-throwing monster has been "terrorizing" them. The girls eventually find out that the "snow" is really ash, and the "monster" is actually a geologist warning them that an active volcano is not a safe place to work. (The trip to Jelly Island was about 1,759 miles from their attic)

11. The Case of the United States Navy Adventure (1997)
Unidentified flying objects have been seen flying overhead. In this case, the girls get help from the United States Navy to solve the mystery. The "UFOs" ended up being a satellite that was flying too low in orbit. (The trip to The Edge of the World was about 3,528 miles from their attic)

Compilation releases

Other than the eleven episodes, there were two compilation videos made.

The Amazing Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley

Includes The Case of the SeaWorld Adventure, The Case of the U.S. Space Camp Mission, and The Case of the Hotel Who-Done-It.

The Favorite Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley

Includes The Case of the Volcano Mystery, The Case of the Fun House Mystery, and The Case of the Logical I Ranch.

References 

Direct-to-video film series
American children's films
American films
1990s mystery films
1990s musical films
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Films about children
Films about twin sisters
1990s children's films
Twins in fiction "A Case for Shame" is a song by American electronica musician Moby. It was released as the first official single from his eleventh studio album Innocents on July 1, 2013. The track is a collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter Cold Specks.

Background 
Moby first came into contact with Cold Specks due to their mutual connection as Mute Records label mates, and after listening to her 2012 album I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, he invited her to collaborate. The two recorded the songs "A Case for Shame" and "Tell Me", the former in November 2012 while Cold Specks was on tour in the United Kingdom. Cold Specks described the recording process as "a very free, collaborative, creative environment... He was really open to what I was doing and luckily he liked what I was doing and it worked really well."

Music video 
The music video for "A Case of Shame" was directed by Moby and released on July 17, 2013. Filmed in a pool in his Los Angeles home, the clip's premise was described by Moby as being about "an after-life inhabited by people who are concealing themselves because of shame."

Track listing
 Digital download
"A Case for Shame"  – 5:48
"A Case for Shame"  – 5:58
"A Case for Shame"  – 6:19
 Digital download – remixes 
"A Case for Shame"  – 8:42
"A Case for Shame"  – 8:38
"A Case for Shame"  – 6:33
"A Case for Shame"  – 6:34

Charts

References

External links 
 

2013 singles
2013 songs
Moby songs
Songs written by Moby
Song recordings produced by Spike Stent