
Judge John Deed (2001)
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Jeremy Child as Sir Alan Peasmarsh
Episodes 8
Judicial Review
Deed gets angry when a brother judge deals leniently with a man convicted of political offences from whom the judge has had certain favours. He makes an accusation of corruption, despite Jo's misgivings.Meanwhile, Jan Dobbs is in Deed's own court charged with murder, and the hit-and-run case from the previous episode is still not concluded. Of course, the bigwigs of the legal profession are still busy scheming to marginalize both Deed and Jo Mills.
Read MoreSeparation of Powers
Deed has an environmental case before him, in which a company operating a large-scale waste incinerator is accused of damaging people's health by air pollution. Jo Mills represents the parents of a damaged child, but is losing. Then it comes out that the company deliberately hid a fault at the incinerator which made its emissions far worse. Meanwhile, Rufus Barron comes up with evidence to support the claim that Neil Haughton took a bribe on a defence contract. Then the evidence is lost, and Haughton demands that Deed should be impeached for unprofessional conduct.
Read MoreHard-Gating
Deed questions an unpleasant prison officer closely about the death of Paul Settle, a young prisoner who was stabbed to death and then partly eaten by his cell-mate Ben Bradwell just a week before he was due to get out.
The Judge is worried that Settle was black, while Bradwell was known to be a vicious racist. In another case, Deed comes up with a thoughtful sentence for a drunk driver who killed a child.
Meanwhile, Deed and Jo seem to be growing apart.
Read MoreMy Daughter, Right or Wrong
In a case in Deed's court, his daughter Charlie is the junior counsel defending Henry Free - an animal rights activist charged with murder after a fire-bomb at an animal research unit killed an eminent scientist. Then Henry falls out with his leading counsel and asks Charlie to defend him - but Deed advises her not to. Part of Free's defence is that his group had been infiltrated by an officer of MI5, the British secret service, acting as an agent provocateur, and Deed is angry when Charlie reveals the officer's identity in court.
Meanwhile, Jo is helping and encouraging Charlie - and she is back with her old flame, Marc Thompson. Deed is losing her.
Read MoreLost Youth
Deed has to judge a case concerning Jo's boyfriend, Marc Thompson. Marc wants to take the decision not to resuscitate a two-year old patient at his hospital who has a weak heart and is in a coma, if the child's heart stops again, but the parents disagree.
In another case, Deed has to sentence a young thief, and the youth then dies in custody. All this brings back Deed's memories of his own traumatic childhood. He is spoiling for a fight and argues with Jo - who announces that she has decided to marry Marc.
Read MoreSilent Killer
In court, Deed has to judge the case of a couple who are fighting their local council over a police communications mast on the roof of the building they live in. Gilly Bridges has motor-neurone disease, while her husband Jake has stomach cancer, which they claim are connected with the 'tetra' mast. The incidence of both diseases in the Bridges' block of flats is many times the statistical norm. Jo represents Jake and Gilly Bridges, while Deed's former wife George appears for the defendant council.
Then Deed receives an application from Rose Hussein, the English wife of a former government minister from Iraq. Rose believes depleted uranium used by the British Army in its tank shells killed her family - and she wants the court to establish the facts. Of course, the government doesn't want the case to be heard.
Read MoreHeart of Darkness
In Deed's court, Jo Mills acts for a mother whose former husband, Paul Robson-Alan, wants their baby to be given the 'MMR' vaccination. Robson-Alan is a British Government health adviser, and the outcome of the case is important to the political credibility of the Health Department. But Paul's ex-wife, Marika, believes the MMR jab is dangerous - and some dramatic new evidence is produced on that.
Meanwhile, Jo's wedding to Marc is still on, but she is so busy that she forgets to turn up for the rehearsal of the service. Jo is angry with Deed when he forces her to attend a legal meeting on the morning of the wedding itself. Will she get to the altar on time, and will she go through with it?
Read MoreWar Crimes (2)
Continuing the story of a war crimes trial in The Hague. Deed finds the defendant is a victim of the British government's attempts to develop an exit strategy out of the continuing occupation of Iraq by western forces, and he has to balance the interests of justice against the possibility of saving British lives.
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