Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole has a penchant for giving literary or historical nicknames to friends and foes. His wife Hilda's moniker, "She Who Must Be Obeyed," was originally applied to the title character of H. Rider Haggard's novel "She." Phyllida Trant Erskine-Brown's nickname, "Portia," is from William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." Samuel Ballard is dubbed "Soapy Sam" after Bishop Samuel Wilberforce', who is now best remembered for debating Thomas Huxley over Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, but regarded in his own time as rather a slick operator. He calls Judge Graves the "whited sepulchre", a Biblical allusion (Matthew 27).

Featured in The 33rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1981)