Editing John Mortimer (section)

==Later writing career==
Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named [[Rumpole|Horace Rumpole]], inspired by his father Clifford,<ref>Robert McCrum, Mortimer Tribute, ''The Observer'', p. 29, 18 January 2009 {{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jan/18/john-mortimer-fiction1 |title=Accidental barrister who wielded his wit to share life's big joke |access-date=9 April 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122051145/http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jan/18/john-mortimer-fiction1 |archive-date=22 January 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 January 2009 |last1=McCrum |first1=Robert}}</ref> whose speciality is defending those accused in London's [[Old Bailey]]. Mortimer created Rumpole for a [[BBC]] ''[[Play For Today]]'' in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor – in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted [[Alistair Sim]] "but he turned out to be dead so he couldn't take it on" – Australian-born [[Leo McKern]] played Rumpole with gusto and proved popular. The idea was developed into a series, ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'', for [[Thames Television]], in which McKern kept the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with [[Timothy West]] in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many real-life cases of the barrister [[Edward Marshall-Hall]] in a radio series with former ''[[Doctor Who]]'' star [[Tom Baker]] as protagonist.

In 1975 and 1976, Mortimer adapted eight of [[Graham Greene]]’s short stories for episodes of ''[[Shades of Greene]]'' presented by [[Thames Television]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greene |first=Graham |date=1975 |title=Shades of Greene |location=London |publisher=The Bodley Head & William Heinemann}}</ref> Mortimer was credited with writing the script for [[Granada Television]]'s 1981 serialization of ''[[Brideshead Revisited (TV serial)|Brideshead Revisited]]'', based on the novel by [[Evelyn Waugh]]. However, [[Graham Lord]]'s unofficial biography, ''John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate'',<ref>Published in United States as ''John Mortimer. The Secret Lives of Rumpole's Creator'' (New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2006)</ref> revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted [[John Fowles]]'s ''The Ebony Tower'' starring [[Laurence Olivier]] for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel ''[[Paradise Postponed]]'' was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of [[Franco Zeffirelli]], for the 1999 film ''[[Tea with Mussolini]]'', directed by Zeffirelli and starring [[Joan Plowright]], [[Cher]], [[Judi Dench]], [[Maggie Smith]] and [[Lily Tomlin]]. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show ''[[Boston Legal]]''.<ref>[http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/01/16/in-appreciation-of-john-mortimer In appreciation of John Mortimer] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120232809/http://features.csmonitor.com/books/2009/01/16/in-appreciation-of-john-mortimer |date=20 January 2009}}, Csmonitor, 16 January 2009; accessed 13 January 2016.</ref>

Mortimer developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court. His work in total includes over 50 books, plays and scripts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daniel |first=Anne |year=2003 |title=John (Clifford) Mortimer |journal=Dictionary of Literary Biography |volume=271 |via=Literature Resource Center}}</ref>  Besides 13 episodes of Rumpole dramatized for radio in 1980, several others of his works were broadcast on the BBC, including the true crime series ''John Mortimer Presents: The Trials Of Marshall Hall'' and ''Sensational British Trials''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/jmortimer.html |work=Diversity Website Radio Drama |author=Deacon, Nigel |title=John Mortimer Radio Plays |date=2012 |access-date=20 October 2021}}</ref>