BAD writing has left television drama a pale shadow of what it was 30 years ago, the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey said last night.

Sir John Mortimer, who at 83 remains one of the country’s most prolific authors, told an audience at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival that the only TV programmes he watches now are news bulletins. “I think drama on television has sunk terribly low. When Rumpole started in 1978 there were those wonderful Plays for Today and all the good writers were writing for television drama.”

Despite his doubts, Sir John remains an enthusiastic contributor to the cannon and is currently working on a television adaptation of his comic novel Quite Honestly. It will star his daughter Emily and be his first script for British television since Cider with Rosie in 1998.

In a wideranging discussion conducted with the help of his trademark glass of champagne, Sir John also addressed his loathing of political correctness, the challenge of adapting Evelyn Waugh for television, feminism, the curse of pomposity, his drink-fuelled writing routine, the diminishing character of the Bar, Tony Blair, the futility of prison, evidence for the existence of God and his fondness for murderers.

The son of an illustrious divorce lawyer, Sir John was for nearly 40 years a successful barrister and one of the country’s best known advocates of free speech and civil liberties.

After selling his first story while still a schoolboy at Harrow, he has written more than 50 stage plays, short stories, novels and scripts for tele- vision, radio and the cinema.

Amongst his best known work is the autobiographical A Voyage Round My Father and the celebrated 1981 adaptation of Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.

Sir John said that Rumpole’s enduring success, through seven television series and numerous books, owes much to his perspective on the issues of the day. In the character’s latest novel Rumpole and The Reign of Terror, Sir John’s hero defends a Muslim man accused of involvement in a terrorism plot. “The next book is going to be about ASBOs. They (the Government) are so proud of these ASBOs. I think the people in Chambers are going to try and get an ASBO (served) because Rumpole keeps on lighting cigars and anybody who lights a cigar causes an iceberg to melt,” he said.

Sir John said that he still drinks a glass of champagne every morning before he starts to write. “I write with a pen in a long notebook. If I can I write 1,000 words a day. That takes me to luncthime when I get drunk and go to sleep.”

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

The Times Book Group
Café Theatre
11am-12pm
Have your say on Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing in the Festival book group, led by Alyson Rudd

Rageh Omaar
Town Hall
6pm-7pm
Rageh Omaar returns to talk about his childhood in Somalia, his life as a British Muslim and his new book, Only Half of Me

Maggi Hambling
Town Hall
7.30pm-8.30pm
Hambling is one of Britain’s most inventive and talker-about artists. She joins The Times’s Rachel Campbell Johnston in an exploration of her diverse career

Christopher Hope
Town Hall
7.30pm-8.30pm
The South African author joins Steven Gale to talk about his new novel My Mother’s Lovers

Paddy Ashdown
Town Hall
8.45pm-10pm
The former party leader, European diplomat and soldier discusses his career and the writing which has influenced him

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