Rumpole and the Primrose Path and wife duo Timothy West and Prunella Scales. The additional stories were: Rumpole and the Primrose Path Rumpole and the Primrose Path is a light hearted legal comedy, one of six short stories in an anthology by writer John Mortimer. It is the 12th in a series based in part on his own past experiences as a barrister but also notable for their use of themes topical at the time each was published. It begins with the eponymous hero marooned in a nursing home where he feels some shady business is going on. It was later the first episode in
Rumpole of the Bailey character traits that are constant. First and foremost, Rumpole loves the courtroom. Despite attempts by his friends and family to get him to move on to a more respectable position for his age, such as a Queen's Counsel (QC) or a Circuit Judge (sarcastically referred to respectively as "Queer Customers" and "Circus Judges" by Rumpole), he only enjoys the simple pleasure of defending his clients (who are often legal aid cases) at the Old Bailey, London's Central Criminal Court: "the honour of being an Old Bailey Hack," as he describes his work. A devotee of Arthur Quiller-Couch's "Oxford Book of