Rumpole of the Bailey debut on 17 December 1975 to good reviews by the critics. Aware of the potential for further stories centred on Rumpole, Irene Shubik approached the BBC's Head of Plays, Christopher Morahan, and obtained permission from him to commission a further six "Rumpole of the Bailey" scripts from John Mortimer. However, Morahan left his post at the BBC a short time later and his successor was not interested in turning "Rumpole of the Bailey" into a series. At around this time, Shubik was contacted by Verity Lambert, Head of Drama at Thames Television, who was looking for ideas for an up-market
Rumpole of the Bailey Soapy Sam Ballard became Head of Chambers, the other characters seem to be similarly frozen in time. In "Rumpole and the Reign of Terror", Rumpole was still practising in 2006, and Judge Bullingham was still in post — unless this is a different Bullingham, but that is never stated explicitly. In the 1990 story "Rumpole at Sea", Rumpole says of Bullingham: "But now we have lost him." The prior "Mad Bull" was Roger Bullingham, and this Bullingham's name is Leonard. The son of Reverend Wilfred Rumpole and his wife Alice, and born at Dulwich, Rumpole attended "Linklater's" (a fictional minor