A Voyage Round My Father A Voyage Round My Father A Voyage Round My Father is an autobiographical play by John Mortimer, later adapted for television. The first version of the play appeared as a series of three half-hour sketches for BBC radio in 1963. It then became a television play with Ian Richardson playing Mortimer, Tim Good as the young Mortimer while Mark Dignam played his blind barrister father. Mortimer then adapted it for the stage and Alec Guinness was the father and Jeremy Brett the son at the Haymarket Theatre in 1971. Mortimer later (1982) turned the play back into a film for
Rumpole of the Bailey a private citizen rather than for the crown, but he proved that the defendant was innocent and then reaffirmed, "from now on, Rumpole only defends".) Some of Rumpole's clients feel that things would have been better for them if they had been found guilty and resent him for getting them off. Mortimer's 2009 obituary in "The Daily Telegraph" confirmed that Rumpole was, in part, based on a chance meeting in court with James Burge QC: In the television series, where Rumpole first appeared, there is some consistency with regard to Rumpole's backstory. The original play is set in 1974, and