Judge John Deed is a British legal drama television series created by G.F. Newman and produced by the BBC in association with One-Eyed Dog, which stars Martin Shaw as Sir John Deed, a maverick High Court judge who tries to seek real justice in the cases before him.
The series originally aired in the UK from 9 January, 2001 to 18 January, 2007. There are 29 episodes in six seasons.
Judge John Deed airs in South Africa on DStv's BBC Entertainment (formerly BBC Prime) channel.
Season 5 originally aired on BBC Entertainment from Monday 1 June to Thursday 4 June 2009, at 20h30. New episodes aired daily at the same time. There are four hour-long episodes in the fifth season.
A rebroadcast of Season 5 airs on BBC Entertainment from Monday 28 to Thursday 31 December, 2009, at 20h30. New episodes air daily at the same time.
Synopsis
Judge John Deed is a recently-appointed High Court judge who actively seeks justice in the cases before him, while at the same time trying to rekindle an old romance with Jo Mills QC, who regularly appears in his court.
He is described as a character that "speaks out against all the petty rules and bureaucracy that frustrates us all but that most of us don't speak out against".
Due to Deed's unorthodox actions, he is often hampered in his pursuit of justice by several more conventional-minded characters, including his ex-wife, barrister Georgina "George" Channing and her father Sir Joseph Channing; Sir Monty Everard, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD, later Department of Constitutional Affairs); Sir Ian Rochester, and later the Home Secretary Neil Haughton, MP.
Other recurring characters include Deed's rebellious, activist daughter Charlie, who is initially a law student but later progresses to the courts; Deed's friend, police commissioner Row Colemore; and his clerk, Rita "Coop" Cooper, who is often on hand to talk him out of his more ludicrous ideas.