Saturday, August 24, 2013

Rupert Penry-Jones: ‘Silk’ Has American Debut on ‘Masterpiece Mystery!’

NEW YORK TIMES
By MIKE HALE
Published: August 23, 2013




Stories by lawyers about lawyers are often guilty of grandstanding for the jury (that’s us), and early in the first episode of “Silk” the barrister heroine is told, apropos of not much: “Fifteen years you’ve been doing this and you still believe, don’t you? Innocent until proven guilty.” Just in case we missed the point, it’s repeated by her a few minutes later: “Innocent until proven guilty. Four words to live by.”


It’s a little disturbing to think that this is such a novel concept in the British legal system, but we’ll have to take the word of Peter Moffat, the show’s writer and a former barrister who created two previous legal dramas for British television. “Silk,” which is about to start its third season on BBC, makes its American premiere as part of PBS’s “Masterpiece Mystery!” on Sunday night.

It’s set among the lawyers in a London chambers, and one hurdle for American viewers will be the unfamiliarity of terms like chambers as well as the roles of barristers, solicitors, clerks, pupils and crown prosecutors.


Silk

On PBS stations on Sunday nights at 9 (check local listings).

Produced by the BBC and Masterpiece. Written by Peter Moffat; directed by Michael Offer; Cameron Roach, producer; Hilary Salmon, executive producer for the BBC; Rebecca Eaton, executive producer for Masterpiece.

WITH: Maxine Peake (Martha Costello), Rupert Penry-Jones (Clive), Tom Hughes (Nick), Natalie Dormer (Niamh) and Neil Stuke (Billy).


READ MORE HERE: http://tv.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/arts/television/silk-has-american-debut-on-masterpiece-mystery.html?_r=0

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