Law and Order

23/05/2018 27 min

Listen "Law and Order"

Episode Synopsis

Law and Order: the legacy - 40 years ago, GF Newman's quartet of plays, Law & Order, provoked calls from MPs for the author to be arrested for sedition and the summoning of the director-general of the BBC to the Home Office to explain himself. The dramas explored the role of the Metropolitan Police, the criminal, the solicitor and the prison system around one central story. They provided a savage and uncompromising assessment of the criminal justice system, one in which corruption and stitch ups were common. Laurie Taylor considers the impact of those plays and the extent to which they created a public and political debate which produced positive reform. Four decades later, have we any cause for complacency? He's joined by the writer, GF Newman, Tim Newburn, Professor of Criminology at the LSE and Charlotte Brunsden, Professor of Film & Television Studies at the University of Warwick.
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

More episodes of the podcast Thinking Allowed

Dogs 15/07/2025
Death 17/06/2025
Solidarity 03/06/2025
Motherhood 25/03/2025
Smoking 18/03/2025
Dress Culture 11/03/2025