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 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