Rumpole of the Bailey drama series. Impressed with "Rumpole of the Bailey", Lambert offered Shubik the opportunity to bring the series to Thames. John Mortimer readily agreed, since it would mean more money, and Shubik (and "Rumpole") duly left the BBC in late 1976. "Rumpole of the Bailey" made its Thames Television debut on 3 April 1978 in a series of six episodes. These introduced and established the supporting characters including Guthrie Featherstone (Peter Bowles), Claude Erskine-Browne (Julian Curry) and Phyllida Trant (Patricia Hodge). The role of Hilda was recast, with Peggy Thorpe-Bates taking on the part. Other than McKern, David Yelland (who played
Paul Bailey (British writer) Visiting Lecturer in English Literature at the North Dakota State University (1977–79). He was awarded the E. M. Forster Award in 1974 and in 1978 he won the George Orwell Prize for his essay "The Limitations of Despair", first published in "The Listener" magazine. Bailey was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. Paul Bailey's novels include "At The Jerusalem" (1967), which is set in an old people's home, and which won a Somerset Maugham Award and an Arts Council Writers' Award; "Peter Smart's Confessions" (1977) and "Gabriel's Lament" (1986), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize