What do The Archers, Law and Order UK and The Bill all have in common?

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What do The Archers, Law and Order UK and The Bill all have in common?

The answer I have found over the years is that the lawyers instructed to give advice in the police station scenes, always give very poor advice.

I suppose it could be that in TV shows, actors tend to be paid more if they have a speaking role, so that might explain why when the accused asks his lawyer what to do, there appears to be just a shrug of the shoulders.

That explanation however seems to wear a little thin on the radio so I find myself asking why o why did the lawyer at the police station in the Rob and Helen Titchner attempted murder case, advise Helen to make no comment.

If there were ever a case for a full explanation, this was it to raise the nature of the defence which appears to be a pre-emptive defence of another (her son Henry).

The defence would have been raised and almost certainly, it would have prevented what the words of the caution now given to persons in that situation reads, namely “Harm to your defence if you don’t mention when questioned, issues that you will later rely on in court”.

Maybe the true explanation is simple as the fact that the advice given at a police station is extremely specialised and few lawyers, let alone scriptwriters, understand what happens in that environment. Even lawyers will sometimes make the mistakes of sending QCs of Senior Barristers to a police station for a celebrity client, despite those Barristers never having been inside a police station in their lives or having any experience.

The truth is that the moments following an arrest are often pivotal for the whole of the rest of the detained person’s life and all too often, the advice given is shockingly poor.

We at Burton Copeland pride ourselves at being available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and if this is being read by the scriptwriters of popular TV and radio programmes, we area also available to advise them!

Gwyn Lewis

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