North Square (2000) User Reviews

How did I only just find this?

[digitaljon2000 · 9/10 · 27 May 2019]

This must have been one of the first real courtroom/ chambers legal based dramas. I found this by chance.

This was gripping, edgy at times and most of the acting was good.

Whilst this was just one season, I am disappointed it ended there. However, Clive Reader (Penry-Jones) and Micky Joy (Phil Davis) mad it into a similar style drama in Silk.

Based on the viewing and the overall enjoyment of the drama, I wished there was at least one more season. It was a good insight into the legal profession work; although I'm pretty sure it is a little more politically correct in this day and age.

On a par with Silk, but a missed opportunity to be much better.

All bar none

[safenoe · 8/10 · 29 November 2021]

It's a shame North Square didn't reach a second season. I wonder if it was set in London then a second season would have beckoned, but I guess being in Leeds was bold I guess.

Being a barrister isn't always glamorous, and North Square shows its grit. I'll never one episode where two barristers (a male and female) rush off for a quickie in the middle of a trial, doing their deed in a disabled toilet! I'm not sure if they used protection I guess.

Why do the good die young?

[NEWPDQ · 4 October 2003]

North Square was an excellent one-hour drama series with a great cast and great characters. The scripts were plausible and funny and it looked like a sure-fire hit. What happened? We only get one series of this and yet we're on the third series of the lame 'Teachers'. North Square was a sharp as The West Wing in places. Sometimes I really don't understand how television works.

Brilliant series cancelled for nothing.

[georgianesther · 10/10 · 8 January 2004]

A great, slick, angry, and so very intelligent legal drama. Great casting and acting, and my intro to McCrory. One of those series, oh fantastic, building up characters over episodes and then, for no good reason, being cancelled and wiped out. How very very annoying, especially seeing what Reality TV that Ch4 pulps out year after year instead. I still miss knowing what development might have occurred in this stunning show. And great to see a top lead vehicle for Phil Davis. That moment at the end, his fatherly role, looking round at his troupe in the pub... perfection.

Amazing series, wholly underrated and wrongly pulled.

[brassedoff-1 · 10/10 · 24 May 2006]

Another Channel 4 great canned long before it's time. Compelling acting from Phil Davis and the rest of the cast. Sexy, intelligent and funny. I remember watching it at the time and even then, asking around, no-one had really heard of it. But trying to find someone now who can recall it is even harder. Perhaps Channel 4 don't do their job well enough in drumming up the enthusiasm needed. Either that or the general public is too interested in the TV vomit that is Big Brother. I suspect the latter. Downloading of Garth Merengie's Dark Place prompted Channel 4 to release a DVD of that series. Let's hope the same can happen with North Square.

Gets even better with time

[georgianesther · 10/10 · 28 October 2014]

hello again. Its been ten years since my last review of this show and finally I got to see it again on DVD, only 14 years since I last saw it, and its even more wonderful than ever. I still mourn its cancellation. Mckliesh, as he looks around that pub at his family. Oh that's just a wonderful bit of direction, in fact the editing is superb as well. Great line of casting, I suppose I will have to check out SILK now to see how it compares. Oh yes and I love the intro graphics as well, good music and animation. I suppose its too late to bring it back, ah well, maybe ill write another review in ten years if IMDb will let me

The most enjoyable TV series I've ever seen

[jrsubs · 10/10 · 16 August 2010]

Like others I hung around disconsolately for years waiting for the second series that never materialised. But what we did get was a fabulous fast-paced, funny, insightful, fascinating, witty walloping drama with a brain. The acting is superb from the whole cast, I still luxuriate in watching and re-watching some of the pointy moments and the characterisations within. Rose's smile when she agrees with McLeish that he'll make the best godfather ever. Morag when she asks the evil prosecutor why she (the prosecutor) is childless. Ah ... Morag!! Each of the lead women were to die for (I'm male) -- I'd happily have married any of the female characters.

McLeish/Davis is superb in his presentation of the rough (and flawed) diamond gradually revealing a heart.

The story lines are not subtle, but they are damned satisfying, a real pleasure to get lost in.

Like some others I'm mystified that so few people seemed to watch this at the time, why it received so few contemporary plaudits, and why so few know about it today. Most of all I can't understand why it's not available now on DVD. It's almost criminal that such a high point of TV production, still just modern enough not to seem dated, is not available in any form anywhere (legally I mean).

Perhaps it's perceived as having no appeal to 95% of the population and no appeal at all to an American audience. None-the-less such a rarely intelligent production deserves to be available and promoted to the sizable minority who did and would enjoy it.

If ever there should have been....

[dr_ivorwilliams · 10/10 · 4 January 2022]

A second series, why was there never? What a brilliant piece of tv. I have watched it several times and never tire, music by the Clash sets the time but doesn't date it. Brilliant performances of many (at different stages of their careers), but Phil Davies is outstanding. Considering the dross served up to us today, this is gold. If you never viewed this series you are in for an unforgettable experience.

Wonderful series, excellent production

[georgianesther · 10/10 · 17 April 2021]

Hello yet again. Another review after seven years. I felt moved to write again because one of the great actors of this show passed on yesterday. This was my introduction to her and she was electric in it. This is the series that I've most wanted to see season two of, but they cancelled it after setting up the characters in a most interesting and dynamic way, and I always wanted to know what happened next. Isnt it agony when that happens? R.i.p. Helen.

Remove the baby obsession and this is quite good.

[Neil-900 · 5/10 · 22 January 2010]

I found the first episode a little annoying as the first half was a load of smug lawyers spouting quips and nothing else. They finally decided to actually mention court cases in the second half and once these had gotten going I found it quite interesting. Then it all went wrong. A couple in the chambers had a baby and it now seems that the writers can't go one episode without obsessing about this child. It is so bad that they can't go 10 minutes without a scene about junior.

I really don't get it, all I can think is that the writer was a new father and has lost all perspective.

The legal side is pretty good but no way as good as the fan boys that have commented so far. This is a reasonably good drama spoilt by some baby obsessive stupidity.

5/10

Law as war

[Philby-3 · 29 April 2002]

I was sorry to hear of the demise of this series after only one season; it seemed to have a lot of potential despite a lot of over-writing and some rather farcical story-lines. Essentially it's `This Life' injected into `Rumpole.' Like most good series the interest was in the characters and their interaction and there was a great line-up here. There are the two young cavaliers, Alex (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Billy (Kevin McKidd), their spouses Helen (Victoria Smurfitt) and the redoubtable Rose (Helen McCrory), Morag (Ruth Millar) and Stevie (Sasha Behar) the duelling juniors. Towering over them all, is Peter McLeish (Philip Davis), nominally a mere clerk, but to all intents and purposes the boss. McLeish will do almost anything to advance the careers of his barristers, including it seems getting them struck off. The farcial element is mainly provided by the clients, or at least by the close relationship McLeish feels he has to cultivate with the crime bosses of Leeds, where the series is set, to hustle briefs for his chambers.

As befits a series of this sort there's lots of bonking and an almost unbelievable amount of drinking. Maybe that's the way they do things in the north of England; my recollection of the Sydney bar is that heavy drinking was a minority occupation and anyone with enough energy left for sex was clearly neglecting their practice. As for sex with an instructing solicitor, nothing could be further from most barrister's minds. However the court stuff here is cool. North Square member Tom Mitford (Dominic Rowan) has a great line in final speeches to the jury which sometimes even work on judges sitting without a jury – there's nothing harder than swaying a judge's emotions. Rose is also a star, and even Alex, the series male bimbo, does some good work from time to time.

But McLeish dominates proceedings. He's the master of the unexpected, keeping his own staff on their toes and his barristers well supplied with booze and briefs. The last episode explains a lot about the character and his motivation, but the Svengali act seems second nature. It's certainly the most swashbuckling portrayal of a barrister's clerk seen on the screen, but not a million miles from reality. Think of ex-Private First class Wintergreen, in the book `Catch 22', who did command assignments at Allied HQ, of whom even generals were afraid.

hBest legal series I've ever seen - Cancelled by Channel 4 - Pity.

[BJS · 18 April 2001]

This was a pithy, intelligently handled 10 part series that was a pleasure to watch each week.

Seldom if ever have I seen something that was as enthralling, fast moving and that had characters who seemed to jell.

Congrats. to TVO (TV Ontario - Canada) for having given me the opportunity to look forward to an episode each week. The ten weeks came to an end all too soon.

I'm really sorry to learn that the creators won't have a chance to make another 10 episodes.

BJS.

The quality of mercy is not strained....

[Svlad_Cjelli · 15 May 2004]

Here in Australia our ABC is currently doing a repeat screening of this top notch British legal drama/comedy, and not a moment too soon. 10 episodes is just not enough of North Square and it's completely criminal that more were never made.

North Square may not be a realistic portrayal of legal life (though my own experiences as a law student and one-time article clerk do make me wonder if there is a grain of truth in North Square) but it has witty dialogue and fascinating characters. It's hard to pick a favourite part of North Square but my vote goes to barrister Tom Mitford's method of swaying juries and judges - with quotes from The Merchant Of Venice....it's adaptable to any case, even indecent exposure.

But there are heaps of great moments in this show. Find a copy, watch it, and let it endear you to the legal world of Leeds.

A bit too good for the hoi polloi, perhaps

[Karmapolice · 12 January 2001]

A really excellent legal drama that has unfortunately been cancelled after one series, North Square was almost unique in combining witty dialogue, interesting plots, superb acting and a good sense of legal life both in the courtroom and out of it, without resorting to the sordid emptiness of 'This Life'. A true cult TV series.

Great performance and all round great viewing.

[ubc245ubc245 · 6 January 2004]

This was a great series that sadly never made it to a second round.

I enjoyed all the characters and their office and other politics.

This should be compulsory viewing for those of us thinking of stepping up to the bar. (UK and countries with similar judiciary systems only)

Superb But Ignored

[GrahamEngland · 12 August 2009]

Having just watched the 1st episode on 4oD, I am reminded just how superb this show was (and anything using a track from The Clash as a theme tune gets my vote!)

Far too many legal dramas on TV, yet this stand out got the chop, but I also recall Channel 4 not really hyping it much at the time either. In this respect it was like BBC's 'Bodies', in a TV world massively over saturated with medical dramas, this was a major stand out too, albeit uncompromising. But at least that got a 2nd series and a full length finale. (Like another soon axed work of art, the comedy on BBC3 'Pulling').

I guess it's demographics, they'll hype up the pandering, lowest common denominator 'reality' dreck knowing they'll get a decent enough audience however bad it is. The good stuff all too often has not only fight to get made, but also fight to get promoted.

For some reason, until I saw it again, I had it in my head that North Square was made around 1990, within minutes the mobile phones and Apple Macs in the show reminded me otherwise. This is I think, maybe a reflection of how not only was it axed after 10 episodes, but I don't recall it even being repeated or released on DVD either.

However I do recall newspaper articles citing North Square as an example of excellence that cost cutting budgets could not sustain, or rather Ch4 would rather spend money on lame imports and Big Brother.

It all started to go wrong for Ch4 when the TV expert that was the Pizza Hut CEO took over the channel.

What's going on with the dialogue?

[Kijofreg · 5 December 2019]

I really liked this series and would've enjoyed a second season, but the dialogue is so strange. So many great actors who don't get to do what they do best, because they have to stick to this artificial, stiff dialogue. Always repeating what someone else said before continuing with their own words. Using each other's names far too often. Answering too quickly every time. It's just a bit too fake.