The Jury (TV serial)
The Jury is a British television serial broadcast in 2002 (with a second series in 2011). The series was the first ever to be allowed to film inside the historic Old Bailey courthouse.
This article is about the 2002 British serial. For the 2004 U.S. drama series, see The Jury (TV series).The Jury
Masterpiece Theatre: The Jury
Pete Travis (Series 1)
Michael Offer (Series 2)
United Kingdom
2
6+5
Peter Morgan
Francis Hopkinson (Series 1)
Lee Morris (Series 2)
Peter Middleton
Edward Mansell
300 min.
17 February –
18 March 2002
Plot[edit]
Series One[edit]
The killing of a 15-year-old-boy rocks the nation, as a Sikh classmate of the boy is charged with the murder. The trial, which is engulfed in protests and media speculation, brings together 12 jurors who find themselves having to make a decision that the entire country is waiting for.
The jurors include: Charles, a young man who has left the seminary to search for his lost love; Elsie, an old lonely woman who is dying; Johnny, a recovering alcoholic; Rose, a beautiful woman whose husband is paranoid in the aftermath of a car accident; Jeremy, a once-wealthy family man who lost all his money when conned by a friend in a bad investment; Peter, who wants to be a good and impartial juror at the trial but is besieged by his wife's parents, who want to get involved; and Marcia, a single mother who is forced to let her mother back into her life during the trial.
The victim, John Maher, was stabbed twenty-eight times on his way to school one morning. His classmate, Duvinder Singh, is accused.
Second series[edit]
At the 2010 Edinburgh International Television Festival, another series of The Jury was announced by ITV, once again written by Morgan. The five-part series was commissioned by director of drama commissioning Laura Mackie and controller of drama commissioning Sally Haynes, and described by ITV as a "character based series which focuses on the everyday people who find themselves at the centre of one of the most controversial criminal re-trials of their time".[4]
Film adaptation[edit]
Quantum of Solace director Marc Forster has been slated to direct an American adaptation of the serial after Fox 2000 purchased the rights in 2007. Forster recruited Beau Willimon to adapt Morgan's script after reading his play Farragut North.[5][6]