Riveting show that asks if juries should face trial by TV

The Trial: A Murder In The Family (C4) is a game attempt to stage a simulation of a major trial in a UK court, writes CHRISTOPHER STEVENS.

The Trial: A Murder In The Family (C4) 

Rating:

Without the courtroom footage, it would just be half- remembered ancient history.

Because we Brits have never allowed cameras in the courts, our own attempts at TV justice lack . . . well, they lack conviction.

The Trial: A Murder In The Family (C4) is a game attempt to stage a simulation of a major trial.

It fails to convince in several ways, but despite the lack of realism it provides gripping drama.

Simon Davis, played by actor Michael Gould, is accused of strangling his estranged wife, Carla, in the kitchen of their former home. Traces of his DNA have been found on her neck. At first glance, he looks as guilty as O. J.

But O. J. got off, of course. And despite the damning evidence, compounded by the suspect’s refusal to answer police questions, college lecturer Davis might walk free, too.

That depends on the jury, who are not actors, but 12 members of the public, under constant camera surveillance.

They include a teacher, a barber, a hedge fund manager, a tax inspector and a housewife: they’re all articulate, intelligent people, though you’d have to worry about office manager Cherry, who claims her intuition is so good that she’s practically a witch.

The judge and the barristers are real-life lawyers. Counsel in charge of the defence is John Ryder QC, whose voice has the deep, fruity timbre of John Le Mesurier after a quart of Beaujolais and who likes to ponder each day’s proceedings in front of the mirror, as he brushes his silver locks after returning his horsehair wig to its tin box.

Mr Ryder is fond of saying that prosecution evidence must never be taken at face value. Nothing is necessarily what it seems.

And, of course, this murder is fictional: no one killed Carla, because Carla never existed.

This trial isn’t about getting at the truth, but a chance to watch as a jury gropes its way towards a verdict.

What we don’t see are the police. It seems that when Simon Davis declined to be questioned, they lost interest and wandered off. A murder suspect should be on remand in custody, not turning up at court on the Tube every morning.

Source: Riveting show that asks if juries should face trial by TV | Daily Mail Online