Benedict Cumberbatch is back on Radio 4 and to mark the occasion here is an exclusive taster of the Sherlock star in action.


He will once again be playing John Mortimer’s Horace Rumpole in a new series, Rumpole and the Portia of Our Chambers, beginning this Friday.

The story finds Rumpole close to giving up the law thanks to a combination of factors: his attraction to pupil Phyllida Trant, an unsettling case involving an Irish terrorist and a devoted father and son, and a visit from an old flame of his wife Hilda’s.

But the love shown by a client’s son for his father convinces Rumpole that he can’t simply quit as husband, father or Old Bailey stalwart. The question of what makes a good parent runs through the drama, with Rumpole asking himself if he is turning into a bad one, especially in comparison to his client.

The adaptation also stars Jasmine Hyde as Hilda Rumpole, Cathy Sara as Phyllida Trant, Stephen Critchlow as Boxey Horne and Samuel Reader as Matthew Culp.

As we can hear below, Cumberbatch’s Rumpole really is love-struck…

Rumpole and the Portia of Our Chambers begins on Radio 4 on Friday July 3 at 2.15pm

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Benedict Cumberbatch returns as young Rumpole in two new Radio 4 dramas