Rumpole of the Bailey Other Staff at 3 Equity Court, London: Frequent courtroom allies and adversaries: Others in Rumpole's life: The origins of "Rumpole of the Bailey" lie in "Infidelity Took Place", a one-off filmed television play for the BBC's 1960s television anthology drama series, "The Wednesday Play" that was written by John Mortimer and broadcast by BBC TV on 18 May 1968. This satirical play – a comment on newly enacted English divorce laws – told the story of a happily married couple who decide to get divorced to take advantage of the more beneficial tax situation they would enjoy were they legally
Rumpole of the Bailey is mentioned that Rumpole was born sometime before the outbreak of World War I. These last two pieces of information would indicate a birth year of 1911, but later books contradict this. "Rumpole and the Primrose Path", for instance, appeared in 2003 and was set in the present day, but Rumpole was in his seventies, not 92. Nonetheless, when in "Rumpole and the Primrose Path" Erskine-Brown asks Rumpole what he sings to himself when he is alone, Rumpole replies, "A ballad of the war years." In general, in the book series, it would seem that Rumpole has been frozen at