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  • The late John Barron (CJ from 'Reginald Perrin') at 2:07...he had some tremendous one liners as Justice Michenor.

  • 1:37 Victor Meldrew before he was made redundant.

  • wow i remember being off ill and this was all you could watch at lunchtime..

    was that a young Zoe Wannamaker in the footage?

  • @Begbutts

    Zoe Wanamaker appeared in Crown Court in 1975. She played a character called Joan Carmichael, in an episode entitled 'Marathon'.

  • I just like to say, what an awesome piece of music this is. It should be better known, preserved somewhere.

  • I was thinking, if you took all the TV theme music of the 60s and 70s and compared it with ALL music written this century, on its own the TV themes are a greater usical achievement.

  • This reminds me of when i was poorly and off school.

  • John Barron (CJ in the original version of The Fall & Rise of Reginald Perrin) was the Judge.

  • By the way, the usual start was a volley of trumpets, fading away when the narrator/announcer told the viewer brief background information- the case was at Fulchester Crown Court and was 'The Queen Versus...'

  • This footage shows clips from a Crown Court story called 'Marathon,' broadcast in 1975. It was among Zoe Wanamaker's earlest TV acting work. This story was unusual in it's format, being a 75 minute film, rather than the usual three half hourly episodes. ITV shown it in the evening, not the normal lunchtime 1.30 slot.

  • A truly great theme tune. Love the way it builds up, just beautiful!

    

  • I remember watching Rooms as well, may have been 5 or 6 at the time, but yeah thats another one I do remember

  • Okay, now I really feel so bloody old. I also remember Rooms and Intimiate Strangers and Helen a woman of today.

  • @irisferguson Rooms ? Gee I remember seeing that as a kid growing up in NZ - wasn't there a really old lady who lived in the block who was a real old busy body?

  • @booth2710 Yep, that's the one. It was kind of depressing and beige but we didn't have much choice back then. You bunk off school you take what you can get. Ditto summer holidays

  • @booth2710 I still remember the opening title for Rooms - a darg barking, milk bottes on a doorstep klinking and a piciture of a newspaper add listing rooms to rent and the artilce in the newspaper had a circle round it written in pen ... am I sad or what ? LOL!

  • This show looks like a fuckin piece of shit

  • Victor Meldrew as q.c lol Zoe Wanamaker and the guy in the dock dont know his name but plays Nazis alot in film .Great stuff anyone remember the sullivans aswell and the cedar tree.

  • @a1karaoke The guy in the dock is Michael Byrne, he has played a Nazi in Force Ten From Navarone and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, a German terrorist in The Professionals, Gail's Dad in Coronation Street..etc

  • crikey, was told about this at work, can remember it like it was yesterday, im 43 now cant believe there is 200+ comments

  • Yup, rainy days home from school...

  • OMG! Is that a very young Michael Byrne I see at 1:00?

  • Followed by an ad break and then....BONG!!! This is the News at One with Leonard Parkin

  • I remember thinking Crown Court was a fly on the wall documentary, but I was pre-school at the time. I never really watched it, it was always just on in the background after The Sullivans and before The Mr Men or Jamie and the Magic Torch, so I tolerated it. :)

  • Definitely the BEST theme tune of any tv series now or then! It has never been bettered! Still brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it! Had it on vinyl too!

  • I don't belive it Victor Meldew!!

  • Zoe Wanamaker!

  • the format for this show was amazing, YEARS ahead of its time. Remember, the JURY were all MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC IN GOOD STANDING IN THEIR COMMUNITY, the key roles were played by actors, but I can see this show would be a success, esp if the public voted on the verdict by phone/text, perhaps with all money from incorrect votes going to charity...... Bring back Crown Court !!!

  • Some of the episodes were truly surreal - and quite a few of the same people cropped up later in Rumpole of the Bailey. A bizarre thing for 'off sick' kids to like - but that was the only time you'd get to see it! Libel cases and fraud - all sorts of grown up stuff. Great. I'm reminded though, of the god-awful 'Take The High Road'...

  • Ah John Barron & Richard Wilson - what a fabulous series crown court was - some of our finest actors appeared in it....

  • I bet that old Daimler is doing the rounds now as a cheapo wedding / funeral car full of body filler and who knows what else!!!

  • I dont believe it... its Richard Wilson and Zoe Wanamaker

  • wow,,,,,,,,,,,, memories!!!!!!!! this, pipkins, the sullivans, pebble mill at one, fingerbobs, its all coming flooding back,,,,,,,, oh and armchair theatre!!!!!!!!!!!

  • @shortandbald tales of the unexpected. Bod. Mr Benn ...

  • 'youre looking better'. No I'm still ill. Back to school tomorrow. And no going out with your friends this evening. If you're too ill for school you're too ill for football.

  • Oh boy, I love that EVERYONE remembers this as something that was on when you were ill off school :D

  • followed by farmhouse kitchen...ahh them where the days of 3 TV channels and some great TV viewing

  • that's sooo crazy ! yes I can remember having chicken soup and watching Houseparty,Crown Court and there was a Scottish series called High Living about residents in a block of flats, and not wanting to go to school only to watch them, cosy sort of feeling, thanks for reminding me ...

  • For those who would like to get it the tune is called 'distant hills', it's I believe Scottish and you can find it played by the Pipes and Drums.

  • Oh Kapricorn, I can relate to everything you said! Brings back so many memories! The theme tune is beautiful too....

  • Old Ceejay as the Judge

    " I didnt get where i am today without casting judgement"

  • That chap in the 'dock' - i.e the defendant - looked like Michael Caine, so he did. (That said, It probably wasn't the great man, though.)

    And the good-looking bird in the witness box looked remarkably like a young Zoe Wanamaker. In fact, it WAS Ms Wanamaker (unless I am very much mistaken !).

    I must admit that I didn't spot old Jim Branning [a.k.a. John Bardon], though.

    Maybe I should take another 'butcher's' at the footage.

  • I don't believe it! I didn't get where I am today without recognising Zoe Wanamaker, John Barron, and Richard Wilson.

  • 0:56 -- Is that a young Ken Clarke...? :S

    "Mr. Clarke, you are charged with being slightly less nauseating and slightly more logical than the rest of your Parliamentary colleagues - Contrary to the 'Tabloid Appeasement Act of 2003'."

    Nice suit anyway. Plus he used to have real human hair. Wonders never cease...

  • @trentmuch1 With regard to the aforementioned Mr Kenneth Clarke: are you aware that, 35 years or so ago, 'Clarkey' was generally considered to be the toughest, hardest man in the House of Commons? He could DEFINITELY handle himself in a fight, back in those days, could our Ken.

  • A very young Richard Wilson as one of the barristers in that playback....

  • I still think this should be brought back - but updated with tele-voting to decided the outcome and broadcast live from Manchester! (I copyright this idea!) This show produced some of the best actors we have ever seen in the UK! It would certainly make a change from house makeovers, auctions and chat shows!

  • Do you STILL wish you'd faked the flu to get a day off school?

  • 'ang aba't! Vis ain't ver brass feem I remember! No, I'm not really a Cockney, more like a Mockney... :P

    Still, the CC (TV?) theme I remember - and prefer - is the martial Janácek Sinfonietta, i.e. the trumpet intro to the IVth movement. Brill! :)

  • Zoe looks so sexy

  • Urg hated this when I used to be off school ill. I am sure they used to put this on to deter kids from skiving.

  • This tune reminds me of my young days at home watching TV after the kids lunchtime TV ended and adult TV started at 12.30pm.

  • Some great familar faces in this clip John Barron, Richard Wilson and Zoe Wanamaker with really shot hair- awesome.

  • This theme tune brings back memories of days being off-sick from school. Nothing on the BBC, (after, 'watch with Mother'), but there was ITV. It was either this, 'Good Afternoon', or, 'Farmhouse Kitchen.'

  • @JFredUK My gosh i'd forgotten all about Good Afternoon, must go and search for clips. Farmhouse Kitchen , Good Afternoon and Southern Television's Houseparty were all a million times better than Loose Women.

  • Comment removed

  • @lillabethsmum Farmhouse Kitchen with the indomitable Dorothy Sleightholme - these tv chefs today couldn't make a suet pudding like our Dot!

  • OMG - Victor Meldrew!!!

  • 2:11

    I didn't get where I am today without playing an esteemed judge.

  • Powdered wigs... ; ) You gotta know this shit...

    Right, so who's buying the drinks?

  • so there you go. She RAN in 96 (to friends) then home, ran in 97 for office, then in 98 into a pillar. Now she's just kinda running down your leg, Your Honour. You've still got some kind of problem with the best, don't you? Mentor/Protege... never made it out of Toronto I'm afraid. That's what I thought your said, Poturnip, "Case Dismissed".

    Gald that didn't get TOO offensive. ***Billy-Jim sends Abs to the lab.

  • WHY HAVE THEY NEVER RELEASED THIS PROGRAM ON DVD OR EVER REPEATED IT ON GOLD TV STATIONS . THIS TV COURT DRAMA SERIES IS BETTER THAN MOST BEING MADE TODAY

  • @Littlealan1959 Crown Court had a fair amount of episodes shown on the Sky's "The Legal Channel" i know my sky plus was full of them, until it stopped before it changed it's name, also the first 6 volumes have been released on DVD, check out Amazon

  • Hey Crump that is amazing. When I heard this I recalled cycling home from school at lunchtime on my raleigh chopper to watch this at lunchtime with my Mum. O happy days.

  • blimey its victor meldrew

  • the theme music is the best tv theme of all time follow closely by van de valk both theme tunes were done by simon park orchestra . we have to thank simon and his orchestra,record producers ect for their musicanship without them it would not have possible to have these great tunes .

  • Being ill meant having lunch, then watching crown court and then general hospital (I wonder if that's on here). Thisreally took me back. And didn't Zoe Wannamaker look young?

  • as a child this was the height of bordem for me

  • OMG VICTOR MILDEW

  • has anyone got the link to the intro, the trumpet instrumental?

  • @chevyvictor wont seem to let me post the link. search for Sinfonietta IV Allegretto by Leoš Janáček

  • @centerbark thankyou! yep thats the other Instrumental i was searching for. many thanks

  • @chevyvictor All I can tell you, is it's on here somewhere, and is called "symphonietta"

  • This is what sickies of school were made for, chicken soup and bread, with Houseparty and Crown Court on telly, magic.

  • @Kapricorn1 Just made me laugh reading this comment - your so right! I was there doing exact same thing myself :-))

  • @Kapricorn1 yep. in 1977 it was on in NZ, i was only 8years then, this would be on when sick home from skool

  • @Kapricorn1 cudn't have said it better myself buddy, oh happy days ;)

  • @Kapricorn1 Spot on...and all those school programmes. Happy days.

  • @Kapricorn1 those where the days!........ if only you could o back lol

  • "Muuuuum...my tummy still hurts!"

    "No it doesn't! You're back to school tomorrow!"

  • @UncleFeedle "but i can't it's the last Crown Court epsiode"

  • @UncleFeedle

    And if that didn't work i'd stick my fingers down my throat to be sick. My late Grandmother always fell for it.

  • @UncleFeedle not with the dambned mumps i wasn't!!!! worst sickness i've ever had!!

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  • This tune sounds like it is a classical theme that would suit a posh £1000 hi fi such as Bang and Olofson unit put it on and close your eyes and listen!

  • Yes, usually only seen when off school "sick". The trouble was that it had two or three parts so you might have to be off the next day to see the outcome.

  • My recollection as a child of about 8yrs was that I was not sure if it was a real life trial. It slowly dawned on me that they were actors. Ah, the loss of innocence!

  • I put it to you that at is 1:19 it is Zoe Wannahelpmekaeitthroughthenigh­t. However I do not belieeeeeeeeeeeeve that is Richard Wilson.

    Must have been the "Casualty" of its time. Everybody has been on it at some point..

  • This is the ending theme tune, I thought I was going to hear the beginning theme tune. It's good though.

  • i loved this series never missed an episode!

  • This isn`t the theme I was thinking of.i know that the show opened with one theme and closed with another but i was reminded of the other theme while listening to a programme on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon.Guess I`ll have to listen to the BBC iPlayer to find out who the composer was...all I remember was it was a punchy French Horn theme......found it,some composer called Janacek

    Alfie

  • @alfiemooon Wiki it...Sinfonietta by Janáček, 4th movement

  • This isn`t the theme I was thinking of.i know that the show opened with one theme and closed with another but i was reminded of the other theme while listening to a programme on BBC Radio 4 this afternoon.Guess I`ll have to listen to the BBC iPlayer to find out who the composer was...all I remember was it was a punchy French Horn theme.

    Alfie

  • Fabulous. A marvellous piece of music that deserved more than being the B Side to The Simon Park Orchestra's surprise number one Eye Level (theme to Van der Valk) in 1973.

  • The sense of something respected, honoured, hallowed all now gone. Probably was never really like that but I can remember being afraid of the law when I was a kid in the 1970s - and I never did anything wrong!

  • Aaah... the halcyon days of faking being sick to get off school -- sitting on the carpet in my pajamas for daytime TV; Pebble Mill at One, Crown Court, Jackanory, Watch with Mother, Rainbow, Playaway... then getting depressed realizing there was no getting out of school the next day.

  • o yes the good old 70s i remember this when i was a young kid i thought it was real lol only as you get older you realize its just acting but what actors they were

  • I'm sure some people who never experienced the 70's might accuse us of wading in nostalgia. But the 70's were fantastic. Jaws, Star Wars, the Sex Pistols, Bruce Lee, Ray Harryhausen films, the Sweeney, Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, The Towering Inferno, and of course the wonderful afternoon TV programmes like Crown Court that I also remember watching while home from school. I'm so grateful that I was a kid during those times.

  • This was the theme we all listened to when we were pretending to be sick for a day off school. Did you do that too?

  • I remember this when i was really young...it was nearly always when i was poorly and off school....great days we lived..

  • 0:27 to 0:35 is Princess Road heading into Manchester City Centre........

  • @nevwhile

    well spotted accross the Range Rover Garage

  • @nevwhile Isn't this where Sam Tyler is knocked down in Life on Mars? and, by a remarkable co-incidence, sent back into 1973?

  • I'm reminded school summer holidays in the 70's, lazy afternoons at my great grandmothers flat - happy memories I will cherish forever!

  • me too lilla....i was a child/teenager in the 70's...i remember all the old 70's programmes like crown court,remember most of them! i loved the 70's + think it was my favourite decade...loved the music of the time,+ fashion,+ tv! great memories,now im a old-foagy of nearly 47...lol!

  • This should be brought back! With a TV audience voting! Show should be done live with various endings available depending on how the TV audience had voted. A daytime winner for ITV!

  • Classic.....beautiful theme........and just look at some of those famous faces of today back then ;))

  • God,I hated this!The only downside of being off sick from school.Most enjoyable,thank you.

  • Isn't that Zoë Wanamaker at 1:19? And Victor Meldrew at 1:45

  • this is the closing credits music

  • wow, try concentrating on this with the vuvuzela option on XD

  • Thanks for this, I wonder if it's possible to find any full episodes?

  • Krakenwave thanks for replying I love the music but as for people missing me I dont care

  • Made for pennies, worth gold. Crown Court was essential lunchtime viewing, even for egg-and-Lucozade-on-a-tray kids pulling a sickie from school.

  • This was the tune called "Distant Hills" by the Simon Parks orchestra, which was played at the end. Does anyone know the name of the tune at the start?

  • It's Sinfonietta by Janáček, 4th movement.

  • @DML4VIDEO Many thanks!

  • @DML4VIDEO Actually (If I remember correctly) only the Starting Theme is Sinfonetta by Janacek, the final Theme (which this appears to be) is Distant Hills by (if I'm correct) Simon Park (I could be wrong here, if so apologies to whoever wrote it, if he hasn't popped his clogs by this time :-))

  • That looked like Bracknell.

  • I can remember this when I grew up in the 70s. I left england in 1991 and the last time I went back was in 1995 Ive since learned that england is a shit place to live. It makes me sad that it has come to this. good buy england ferewell you probaly wont see me again

  • @paulus842000

    Fine. You won't be missed.

  • @paulus842000 good riddence we never want to see you back.

  • @bhpgray123 Don't worry, you won't be seeing me again, Anyway what does it change we have never met HA good riddence to you also

  • @paulus842000

    IF only more idiots like you decided to leave we would be so much better off.

  • @bhpgray123 OK seriously I think it is a shame what Engand had come to . I live in france and it's the same thing also. I have lots of fond memeroys of England and how beutiful it is and it makes me sad I would never blame it on the people but the politiciens who run things and take back handers at the same time

  • @paulus842000

    Dickhead!!!!

  • So that's what Victor Meldrew did for a living is it

  • That's a very long intro.

    I thought he looked guilty. I'm surprised he got a walk out.

  • MADE WHEN THIS CONTRY WAS A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE,I loved growing up in the 70s i was only a child i look at the way it was and look at it now what happened.

  • What a lovely theme 70s and 80s music and programmes were total qualtiy i love things from this period and i remember watching crown court with my mum when i was small in the 70s and crossroads of coarse k

  • OMG stumbled on these remember if I a day of school sick as my mum use to watch this and I use to be on the sofa wrapped in a duvet eating chicken or tomato soup and watching theses.........memories.......­.........yes......lestube001 thy were on bout 1ish aftr the lunch time news............

  • These all got repeated on an obscure satellite station called Red recently though I think Red is off the air now.

  • used to on 13.00 ish if i rember

  • I wouldn`t have fancied Ted`s chances with Victor Meldrew defending him, but it looks like he got off with it.

  • I remember this in early 80s when i was kid. It later got repeated on Granada Plus.

  • like other i can vaguely remember watching this at home when i was off from school... i remember one episode about a black guy in the dock... cant remember anymore .... anyway thanks for uploading...

  • I used to think this was real when i was little.

  • This piece called Distant hills was used over the end credits. They used something bit more sinister for the opening and I always thought this tune helped sympathise the outcome whichever way it went!

    Just for the record Benzade1, although in the 1.30ish slot, Crown Court appeared on ITV, not the Beeb!

  • The tune is better remembered than the programme and always reminds people of a certain generation of being off school ill with the measels or something.

    Used to occupy the slot Aussie soap Neighbours eventually took over as the nation gradually fell out of love with stories about Hippies stealing Ford Zephyers etc.

    I often wondered if the BBC were hand in hand with the education authority by broadcasting this rubbish in an attempt to get child malingering swine back into the classrooms.

  • @Benzade1 I for one am offended ,..."this rubish", and how dare you sir, "malingering swine" lol ..

  • Considering it was made by Granada and shown on ITV, I doubt the BBC were hand in hand with anyone over it. ;-)

  • Ha! lol... I remember rushing home on my yamaha fizzy to watch this with my old mum during my lunch hour when i was an apprentice mechanic,, the tune esp brings it all back. The seventys ... days of optimism!.... where did it all go wrong.lol

  • @crump1963 Thatcher kid....and technology

  • @crump1963 I hear ya buddy!

  • Always on when you were home sick

  • WOW.

  • It is wonderfully evocative. I must be weak, it makes me want to cry, but somehow it gives me strength to. If the tune and the memory means something bright to you too I hope you all went on to be very happy. I ended up in the dock a few times, but thankfully never before a jury for I wouldn't have fancied my chances.

  • It's those flutes and oboes that do it.

  • I get tearful when I hear theme music from the 70,s I was very very happy then. We lived in Nottingham but moved away in 1978. Hearing these old themes reminds me of happier times

  • @lillabethsmum i agree with that

  • @lillabethsmum Yeah...this music always brings a tear to my eye.I moved TO Nottingham in '72 from Southampton and this would usually be watched if I was off school poorly or skiving!

  • @lillabethsmum Happier, but sad in the same thought for little old me. Sadly some that sit before The Queen's Cypher & The Queen's Coat of Arms these days do not deserve that privilege.

  • @lillabethsmum It's funny you say that - I was moved away from Wales in 1979 and sent to boarding school and like you this brings back emotional memories - being home sick from school and watching daytime TV - gives me a nostalgic sense of security - nice to know there are others with similar memories.

  • @lillabethsmum You're not alone. I know exactly what you mean.

  • @lillabethsmum I like your comment. The best times in the 1970's. Who ever devised the word 'progress?'. Hope you're happy again!

  • @tubedougz I'm happy but silly things still set me off sometimes, i'm just a silly sentimental woman!

  • yes,..still do

  • Did judges really used to get police escorts like that?

  • I was sad enough to watch some re-runs on a now defunct channel. The really sad thing was, not only childhood memories, but I enjoyed the plot lines as well.

    The amount of actors who went onto greater things from this is amazing.

    Well written, well acted, and the jury making its own mind up. Brilliant.

  • OMG John Moffatt, Michael Byrne, Richard Wilson & Zoe Wannamaker... what a top class of a cast was that. love it.

  • All that police security just to take 1 shoplifter to court in the 1970s...Who do we have in the dock..Zoe wannamaker foorm My Family (hasn't changed has she) and prosecuting, is that a young Victor Meldrew per chance My Lord...Memories of watching this as a child wilst off school...

  • I had perthes disease when a was a nipper and legs wer in plasters wi bar in middle so got to see this alot havin being off school to goto hospital

  • Nice music

  • It amazes me how a theme tune can evoke so many memories..reminds me of afternoons off school and watching this with my mum.."The case of The Queen Vs John Smith proceeds in the Crown Court today"

  • I loved the idea that the jury got to decide the verdict-it wasn't scripted

  • 1.23 That's Zoe Wanamaker

  • This brings back memories of lunchtimes home from School, catching the beginning of Crown Court before dashing back to School on me bike.

  • Was the writer of this theme the same one who wrote the original Emmerdale Farm theme? as both of them have a similar sound.

  • Similar to other comments, used to end up watching this in the afternoon in the late seventies after having a day off from school (usually ill, not always sometimes pretended, didn't we all!).

    This tune brings back so many memories of being round my nan's spoiling me rotten even though I was supposed to be ill. It makes me appreciate how precious those years back then were.

  • Same here as my Grandmother used to pick me up from primary school, so afternoons were spent watching Crown Court and the Sullivans.

  • legendary i use to love this in the 70s a great series,need to be shown again...

  • It has been said beore..... but this programme has to be brought back as a vi