ITV has come up with a Judge Judy clone, called Judge Rinder,(played, in reality by a respected barrister). The TV set is a shabby pastiche of an American court room, complete with flags behind the bench, and those swing gates that I remember from old US movies.
Unforgivably, there is also a bloody gavel on the pretend bench. (for those new to the blog, no British court ever uses a gavel).
I looked the programme up, after a couple of ladies in my local pub enthused about the sexiness of the faux judge, and added the caveat that they thought he was camp, and drew the usual conclusion.
I will give it a run, but I fear that it is unlikely, on the present showing, to improve the public's understanding of courts
This is his day job
This is good reading with regards to the topic - http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/dispute/essay/syndicourtjustice.authcheckdam.pdf
ReplyDeleteSpot on! Although specific to Judge Judy and US law, it nevertheless raises significant questions about the diffuse boundary between entertainment and reality when dealing with things judicial. (And Judge Judy would lay claim to being "a reality show!")
DeleteIt's not a bad TV show but that's about all. He often asks a question but allows himself to be side-tracked and doesn't in the end get an answer. He refers to the litigants by their first name and says hello to them but complains if they say hello back. Worse still he complains when someone in front of him uses the word 'basically', which I agree with him should not be used, but then he uses it himself. The most bizarre of all is that he always has an usher. When was the last time all of our courts always had an usher?
ReplyDeleteYou're quite right, he tells off the litigans for their vocal ticks but has an annoying one himself where he keeps saying 'Do you understand?'
DeleteI was most struck by the fact that his Chambers specialise inter alia in fraud and money laundering. The website also exists in three language versions, English, Russian and Italian.
ReplyDeleteKate Caveat
Judge Judy. So I did. And she's crap :-(
ReplyDeleteClearly not your cup of tea? Nor mine, either.
DeleteYet obviously she strikes a chord in her many viewers with her "U wot m8?" personna, which, at least for the duration of the episode, the viewer can absorb by proxy.
As a paragon of "justice", not so much.
Gimmick TV and nothing more than self promotion.
ReplyDeleteA court runs nothing like this farce and with again give the public the wrong impression of what actually goes on in a court room.
So called "Judge" Rinder is not a judge and was a criminal barrister, so what he is doing dealing with small civil claims is beyond me.
"so what he is doing dealing with small civil claims is beyond me." I have no idea why either but perhaps large amounts of dosh were dangled in front of him and the possibility of becoming a TV 'Star'. Jut think of all the rubbish 'celebrity' programmes he might now find himself on!
ReplyDeleteThe first couple of programmes were quite entertaining, but the rest have become increasingly boring, dealing mostly with tit-for-tat squabbles over money supposedly lent and not paid back. A trawl of the internet gives an insight into the 'entertainment' asprations of R. Rinder QC. I am not sure I would want him as an adversary, as he doesn't seem to listen properly half the time and is more concerned with making a fool of the litigants.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure he is a QC and after this lot of tripe I doubt ever will be!
ReplyDelete