Raising the Bar, with criminal barrister Rob Rinder, starts on Sunday 18 October on Radio 5 Live at 9.00 pm.We are promised "high profile barristers and judges".The series aims to show how the law really works in practice.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06j0v6t

What ever next

"Judge Judy" ??

This American Canker of cheap reality TV is destroying the social cohesion of society to titilate the masses, They have already Bastardised the english language

Radio 5, more like Channel 5

we already have Judge Rinder

we already have Judge Rinder

Day time tv??

obiter, on my understanding Raising the Bar will be a serious, non-fictional programme along the lines of Radio Four's Law in Action. The programme is going to try to dispel popular beliefs about the law such as are found on TV programmes. Top judges will feature. They are surely not going to appear in anything substandard!

Ah, a programme for educated people.

But it's on Radio 5 Live, so not accessible to anyone without DAB radio.

brassnecked, Radio 5 Live is not DAB only. I don't have DAB but listened to the programme last night. Several top barristers chatted about their work, with Rinder putting to them the sort of questions often asked by the general public. In addition to asking the perennial favourite "how can a lawyer defend someone he knows is guilty" he put other very searching questions. E.g. a female barrister was asked how she could bear to defend paedophiles when she herself had just become a mother. Her reply was very moving.We also learned about a judge (not named) who got sacked after repeatedly being overturned on appeal. Now we know why LIPs nearly always lose!The series continues next Sunday evening. Meanwhile this first episode can be heard via the BBC website.

But it's on Radio 5 Live, so not accessible to anyone without DAB radio.

You can listen to most radio programmes on BBc i player radio. I listened last night online and the good thing is you can fast forward. Most of it was not that interesting in my opinion.

What i want to know from such programmes is whether the Judges are truly independent or can they face pressures from interested parties. How can barristers represent clients when the decks are stacked against them.

i will listen to the program this evening and give a balanced review

As far as i am concerned though that Judge Rinder, who is not a real judge just a barrister has brought the whole crminal justice sysem into the gutter with his cheap TV participation

It is now telling me i need to download flash player to view

Any alternatives to flash player ??