Garrow's Law – Series 2 (2010/Acorn Media DVD Set)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Episodes: B+

 

 

William Garrow (Andrew Buchan) is back in Series 2 of Garrow's Law.  Set in 18th century England, William Garrow is a barrister who defends weak and poor from injustice of the corrupt and the social elites.  With cross-examination Garrow proves victims are innocent until proven guilty, but in a time where there are social inequalities and the rich need not provide evidence to send a man to the hangman's noose Garrow fights an up-hill battle in where the courtroom is more a show for the mob than a court of law.
 
In these continuing cases, Garrow fights in a case where 133 slaves were needlessly thrown overboard a ship for fraudulent claim of loss of cargo, all the meanwhile not able to mention it as mass murder.  A man is accused of sodomy and is to hang and Garrow must prove his innocent without revealing he is a homosexual (which back then was also a capital offence).  A captain was wrongly imprisoned for revealing the admiralty of stealing the funds for veteran sailors.  And finally, Sir Arthur Hill's accusation of William Garrow having committed adultery with his wife, Lady Sarah.
 
Based on the records in the Old Bailey Proceedings tells a historical fiction story of William Garrow, a paralegal in the 18th century London.  He uses cross-examination to combat injustice and to keep the rich abusing court laws and systems, which has even now influenced most modern legal justice systems (and hopefully they gotten better too).  It had great setting costuming, setting and choice of actors, another excellent series from the BBC.  Extras include William Garrow: Fact and Fiction, behind the scenes photo gallery, cast filmographies and trailers.

Performance is similar to the first set we reviewed at the following link, but a bit better:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10724/The+Flockton+Flyer+%E2%80%93+S

 

-   Ricky Chiang