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
Richard William Bailey Richard William Bailey Richard William Bailey FRS (6 January 1885, Romford, Essex – 4 September 1957) was a British mechanical engineer and research engineer. Bailey served his apprenticeship at the Stratford works of the London and North Eastern Railway Company, and during this time he gained a Whitworth Exhibition and a Whitworth Scholarship, as well as being made the first ‘Director’s Scholar’. He became in 1907 a college apprentice in electrical engineering at British Westinghouse's Trafford Park works. Bailey was appointed in 1908 as a lecturer in mechanical engineering at Battersea Polytechnic, London and then in 1912 the Principal of