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4 Episodes 2009 - 2009
Episode 1
60 mins
In the London of the late eighteenth century, William Garrow, apprentice counsel to the experienced Southouse, is appalled by the savagery of the court system and the fact that the defending lawyer never gets advanced disclosure. His first case is to defend a youth falsely accused of robbery so that a professional thief taker will be paid for the conviction. He fails to save the boy but impresses the philanthropic and liberal wife of M.P. Sir Arthur Hill, Lady Sarah, who pays him to defend a young girl accused of infanticide. His demolition of the prosecution witnesses and encouraging the girl to move the court with her story results in a Not Guilty verdict and the respect of prosecutor Silvester. However, Southouse warns him that his crusading methods will bring him enemies.
Episode 2
59 mins
Garrow finds himself swimming against the tide of popular opinion when he defends a man known as 'the Monster',who goes around London attacking women with a blade. However he discovers that one of the accused's supposed victims may have an ulterior motive in coming forward and he is also prepared to put on trial the scare-mongering newspaper journalists whose accounts of the case have inflamed the public's reaction.
Episode 3
59 mins
Lady Sarah is disappointed when Garrow successfully defends odious Edgar Cole,who is cleared of raping his maid and they argue. Silvester steps in and the two lawyers fight a duel, in which Garrow is injured. It looks as if Garrow was defending Sarah's honour and her husband suspects infidelity. Although she kisses Garrow, Sarah tells him she will not cuckold her husband. Garrow gets the opportunity of revenge on Forrester, the corrupt thief-taker whose lies cost Garrow's first client his life. After Garrow proves that he was a fence to a young couple who robbed a haberdasher,he is put in the stocks where the haberdasher, whose grandson he killed, ensures that his thief-catching days are over.
Episode 4
58 mins
Having successfully defended a prostitute accused of killing a masochistic client, Garrow takes up the case of Joseph Hamer, charged with treason for belonging to the Corresponding Society, who advocate a wider enfranchisement and much needed electoral reform. The prosecutor is Attorney General Scott, a foolish wind-bag, and Garrow wins the case, thanks to crucial information supplied by Lady Sarah. She knows full well that her husband, member of parliament for a nominal constituency, stood to gain if Garrow lost but she is a woman of great principles, for which reason she also refuses to leave Sir Arthur, by whom she is pregnant, for Garrow.