I just located a couple of Rumpole Of The Bailey audiotapes at the LA Main Library. John Mortimer yer my god. Some episodes I don’t think I’ve read or seen before; one of the tapes is read by *Robert Hardy*! ...but a note attached to it says the tapes are “corrupted.” That can’t mean anything good.
Also have located a Bruce Sterling Shaper/Mechanist collection, all he’s ever written about that hypershocked future. Cool, sharp and alienated, like my mood.
... just now assayed the “corrupt” Rumpole tape. Why do they bother to stock it? There’s nothing on it but a kind of spooky / sad echo... there’s some sort of signal cancellation crap going on there. Stupid, wasteful, and Robert Hardy did such a killer job on the audiobook recording of Master And Commander, too.
...
Now listening to Rumpole For The Defense.
What a character! What a heroic rogue! Very much a kingly character, always prevails, always the master of the situation he bemusedly finds himself in.
Just finished “Rumpole and the Confession of Guilt.” Patrick Tull narrates.
But not Robert Hardy, oh well.