From the magazine

Good lawyers make for bad TV

Plus: BBC2's Rebuilding Notre-Dame: the Last Chapter was like The Repair Shop on a massive scale

James Walton
Barrister Leon-Nathan Lynch was surprisingly bullish about his chances of courtroom victory.  IMAGE: SPRING FILMS / CHANNEL 4
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 19 April 2025
issue 19 April 2025

Given that TV cameras aren’t allowed to film British criminal trials, Channel 4’s new documentary series Barristers: Fighting for Justice is a courtroom drama without the courtroom. As for the drama bit, the programme does its excitable and occasionally successful best – but isn’t always backed up by its own participants, who on the whole are a serious and disappointingly discreet bunch.

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