North Square
Encyclopedia
North Square is an award-winning British
television drama series written by Peter Moffat
and broadcast by Channel 4
at the end of 2000. Starring an ensemble cast
including Phil Davis, Rupert Penry-Jones
, Helen McCrory
and Kevin McKidd
, the programme is set around the practice of a Leeds
Legal Chambers.
The series was filmed in and around the real life Park Square, Leeds
. This is the area near the city where the majority of legal firms are concentrated.
Despite gaining considerable critical acclaim the show failed to garner a substantial audience resulting in only the one series of ten episodes being produced. In Australia
the series was broadcast in 2001 on ABC
and repeated in 2004 after popular and critical acclaim. The full series will be released on DVD for the first time by Acorn Media UK in March 2012.
He establishes relationships with the top criminals in Leeds so he can get their best cases. He is not above persuading a client to offer a plea, not because it's in their best interests but because he doesn't want to miss out on a bigger case coming up.
Early in the series Rose and Billy give birth to a baby boy and Rose comes back to work four days later while Billy is on an assault charge for defending Wendy De Souza, their head of chambers, whom another barrister, Wilson who works for Marlowe's chambers, claimed only got to her position because of her skin colour and is suspended but then cleared. However, Marlowe continues to ask Billy to come back to his chambers which he refuses to do and he instructs the case to go to trial.
Morag Black is a new pupil at chambers, taken under the wing of Rose, and is used as a scapegoat to represent cases for Peter while he gives more high-profile cases to other barristers. Johnny Boy begins a relationship with Morag during series 1 however Peter is against the relationship and instructs them both to end it. Later on, Hussein Ali, another pupil, also joins chambers under the guidance of Tom Mitford, yet there is only one place in chambers available. Peter supports Hussein as he believes he will bring in business. At the end of the series the decision of whom should stay in chambers goes to Hussein, however Peter tells Morag that she can "squat" in their chambers.
Alex Hay, the golden boy of Peter McCleish, is a smooth good-looking barrister with a city centre apartment and a relationship with Dr. Helen Ferryhough. But Peter is working with solicitor Stevi Goode, who can bring business to chambers away from Marlowe, and believes Helen is not strong enough for Alex so pushes Stevi and Alex together for the good of chambers. They embark on an affair, unaware that Peter is pulling the strings; using their relationship to secure big clients from Stevi. After a tip-off from Peter to Helen, she and Alex split up and Helen embarks on a relationship with Tom Mitford. At the end of the series Alex begs Helen to come back to him and it is unknown whether Helen leaves Tom for Alex.
John is the nephew of Peter McCleish and starts work as a trainee at chambers but due to the confusion of his name with his colleague, Johnny Boy, Peter tells him that he is now known as Bob to the rest of chambers. No-one except Johnny Boy knows of their kinship, Peter admitting he has been installed "as his eyes and ears" of chambers.
Throughout the series there is an underlying story of Wendy De Souza, who happens to be having an affair with Judge Martin, applying to be QC. She does not succeed in getting the position. Then Marlowe then finds out about the affair and asks Billy to confirm, stating that if he does the trial will be dropped. Billy confirms this to Marlowe whch results in the trial being dropped but Peter is suspicious as to why. He eventually learns from Billy about his admission and advises Judge Martin to end his affair with Wendy De Souza.
Billy tells Rose about what he has done and is in despair about how Peter is controlling everybody's personal lives, how Wendy was betrayed and why Billy would go to Peter and not her. Plus, she is against Peter's dealings with criminals in order to secure work. At the same time Alex learns from Helen that it was Peter who told her about his affair with Stevi. At this point Rose lobbies the team to have Peter removed but in the end she gets no support and decides to leave chambers. However Peter asks her to do one more case: represent his son, whom he has had no dealings with for 18 years, on a drugs charge. She manages to secure a "Not Guilty" verdict. At the end of the last episode Rose walks back into chambers as the rest of the team are celebrating her victory, indicating that she has come back to work.
With its mixture of legal and personal drama the series bears some similarity to the highly popular This Life
.
Davis was also nominated for Best Actor at the 2001 Royal Television Society
Awards.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama series written by Peter Moffat
Peter Moffat
Peter Moffat is a British playwright and screenwriter. His first play was called Fine and Private Place and was broadcast on BBC Radio in 1997. His best-known plays are Nabokov's Gloves and Iona Rain....
and broadcast by Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
at the end of 2000. Starring an ensemble cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
including Phil Davis, Rupert Penry-Jones
Rupert Penry-Jones
Rupert William Penry-Jones is an English actor, best known for his role as Adam Carter in the British television series Spooks, also broadcast under the title MI-5.-Family life:Penry-Jones was born in London on September 22, 1970...
, Helen McCrory
Helen McCrory
Helen Elizabeth McCrory is a British actress. She portrayed Cherie Blair in both the 2006 film The Queen and the 2010 film The Special Relationship. She also portrayed Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films....
and Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd
Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel...
, the programme is set around the practice of a Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
Legal Chambers.
The series was filmed in and around the real life Park Square, Leeds
Park Square, Leeds
Park Square is a Georgian public square in Leeds, it is one of four notable squares in Leeds city centre, the square is grassed over and is a traditional Georgian park...
. This is the area near the city where the majority of legal firms are concentrated.
Despite gaining considerable critical acclaim the show failed to garner a substantial audience resulting in only the one series of ten episodes being produced. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
the series was broadcast in 2001 on ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and repeated in 2004 after popular and critical acclaim. The full series will be released on DVD for the first time by Acorn Media UK in March 2012.
Cast
| Actor | Character | Series | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phil Davis | Peter McLeish | 1 | 2000 |
| Helen McCrory Helen McCrory Helen Elizabeth McCrory is a British actress. She portrayed Cherie Blair in both the 2006 film The Queen and the 2010 film The Special Relationship. She also portrayed Narcissa Malfoy in the final three Harry Potter films.... |
Rose Fitzgerald | 1 | 2000 |
| Kevin McKidd Kevin McKidd Kevin McKidd is a Scottish television and film actor and director. Before playing the role of Owen Hunt in Grey's Anatomy, McKidd starred as Lucius Vorenus in the historical drama series Rome, and provided the voice of Captain John "Soap" Mactavish in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the sequel... |
Billy Guthrie | 1 | 2000 |
| Rupert Penry-Jones Rupert Penry-Jones Rupert William Penry-Jones is an English actor, best known for his role as Adam Carter in the British television series Spooks, also broadcast under the title MI-5.-Family life:Penry-Jones was born in London on September 22, 1970... |
Alex Hay | 1 | 2000 |
| Kim Vithana Kim Vithana Kim Vithana is a British actress who played Rosie Sattar in Holby City from 2003 to 2005, Doctor Bannerjee in Coronation Street, Yvonne in Always and Everyone, and she has also been in Casualty, Cracker, Love Hurts, Dangerfield, Specials and North Square... |
Wendy De Souza | 1 | 2000 |
| Sasha Behar Sasha Behar Sasha Behar is a British actress, known for portraying Maya Sharma in ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street.-Background:... |
Stevi Goode | 1 | 2000 |
| Ruth Millar Ruth Millar Ruth Laura Millar is a Scottish actress.-Early years:She spent her early years in Glasgow before attending Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design where she graduated with a degree in fine art in 1996. After leaving art school Millar formed Wee Lassie Productions, a production company that... |
Morag Black | 1 | 2000 |
| Dominic Rowan Dominic Rowan Dominic Rowan is an English actor.-Theatre:Rowan's work in theatre includes: A Dream Play, Iphigeneia at Aulis, Mourning Becomes Electra, Three Sisters, The Talking Cure and Private Lives at the National Theatre, London; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice and Talk of the City for... |
Tom Mitford | 1 | 2000 |
| James Murray James Murray (English actor) James Murray is an English actor.-Early life :Murray was born in Greater Manchester; his great-grandfather, Richard Hollins Murray, invented the reflecting lens in 1927.-Career:... |
Johnny Boy | 1 | 2000 |
| James Midgeley | Bob (John) | 1 | 2000 |
| Victoria Smurfit Victoria Smurfit -Early life:She is part of the Smurfit family, one of the richest in Ireland. The family, headed by Victoria's uncle Michael Smurfit, sponsor a number of sporting events including the Smurfit European Open and the Champion Hurdle. The family is also associated with Smurfit Business School in U.C.D.... |
Dr. Helen Ferryhough | 1 | 2000 |
| Robert Mountford | Hussein Ali | 1 | 2000 |
| Tony Monroe | Michael Marlowe | 1 | 2000 |
Synopsis
North Square is a British drama about a group of young, irreverent barristers all hoping to make their mark in the legal profession at a Leeds defence chambers. They are all under the leadership of their by-the-book, Machiavellian chief clerk Peter McLeish, who is clever and obsessed by work and doesn't appear to have a social life. He's struggling to make this new enterprise work and will do anything to make it succeed and beat his arch rival Marlowe from whom he left, taking his best barristers with him.He establishes relationships with the top criminals in Leeds so he can get their best cases. He is not above persuading a client to offer a plea, not because it's in their best interests but because he doesn't want to miss out on a bigger case coming up.
Early in the series Rose and Billy give birth to a baby boy and Rose comes back to work four days later while Billy is on an assault charge for defending Wendy De Souza, their head of chambers, whom another barrister, Wilson who works for Marlowe's chambers, claimed only got to her position because of her skin colour and is suspended but then cleared. However, Marlowe continues to ask Billy to come back to his chambers which he refuses to do and he instructs the case to go to trial.
Morag Black is a new pupil at chambers, taken under the wing of Rose, and is used as a scapegoat to represent cases for Peter while he gives more high-profile cases to other barristers. Johnny Boy begins a relationship with Morag during series 1 however Peter is against the relationship and instructs them both to end it. Later on, Hussein Ali, another pupil, also joins chambers under the guidance of Tom Mitford, yet there is only one place in chambers available. Peter supports Hussein as he believes he will bring in business. At the end of the series the decision of whom should stay in chambers goes to Hussein, however Peter tells Morag that she can "squat" in their chambers.
Alex Hay, the golden boy of Peter McCleish, is a smooth good-looking barrister with a city centre apartment and a relationship with Dr. Helen Ferryhough. But Peter is working with solicitor Stevi Goode, who can bring business to chambers away from Marlowe, and believes Helen is not strong enough for Alex so pushes Stevi and Alex together for the good of chambers. They embark on an affair, unaware that Peter is pulling the strings; using their relationship to secure big clients from Stevi. After a tip-off from Peter to Helen, she and Alex split up and Helen embarks on a relationship with Tom Mitford. At the end of the series Alex begs Helen to come back to him and it is unknown whether Helen leaves Tom for Alex.
John is the nephew of Peter McCleish and starts work as a trainee at chambers but due to the confusion of his name with his colleague, Johnny Boy, Peter tells him that he is now known as Bob to the rest of chambers. No-one except Johnny Boy knows of their kinship, Peter admitting he has been installed "as his eyes and ears" of chambers.
Throughout the series there is an underlying story of Wendy De Souza, who happens to be having an affair with Judge Martin, applying to be QC. She does not succeed in getting the position. Then Marlowe then finds out about the affair and asks Billy to confirm, stating that if he does the trial will be dropped. Billy confirms this to Marlowe whch results in the trial being dropped but Peter is suspicious as to why. He eventually learns from Billy about his admission and advises Judge Martin to end his affair with Wendy De Souza.
Billy tells Rose about what he has done and is in despair about how Peter is controlling everybody's personal lives, how Wendy was betrayed and why Billy would go to Peter and not her. Plus, she is against Peter's dealings with criminals in order to secure work. At the same time Alex learns from Helen that it was Peter who told her about his affair with Stevi. At this point Rose lobbies the team to have Peter removed but in the end she gets no support and decides to leave chambers. However Peter asks her to do one more case: represent his son, whom he has had no dealings with for 18 years, on a drugs charge. She manages to secure a "Not Guilty" verdict. At the end of the last episode Rose walks back into chambers as the rest of the team are celebrating her victory, indicating that she has come back to work.
With its mixture of legal and personal drama the series bears some similarity to the highly popular This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....
.
Awards
- BAFTA Television Awards 2001 - Best Editing (Fiction/Entertainment) - Jon Costelloe
- Broadcasting Press GuildBroadcasting Press GuildThe Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Awards 2001 - Best Drama Series/Serial
- Best Actor - Phil Davis
- Best Actress - Helen McCrory
- Writer's Award - Peter Moffat (Shared with Simon SchamaSimon SchamaSimon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
for A History of BritainSimon Schama's A History of BritainA History of Britain is a BBC documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 30 September 2000....
Davis was also nominated for Best Actor at the 2001 Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Awards.