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William Garrow – played by Andrew Buchan

A passionate believer in social and legal justice, as a defence counsel he wanted to change the law and change the trial forever, to give defendants/prisoners the representation in court that they had never previously had, at cost not only to their innocence but their lives. His championing of the poor and his onslaught on the corrupt reward-driven criminal justice system makes him powerful enemies. He is also his own worst enemy. He falls in love with Lady Sarah Hill who is married to a powerful MP, so professionally and personally he is a man who cannot resist confronting the status quo.

John Southouse – played by Alun Armstrong

An attorney/solicitor and Garrow's mentor to whom he was apprenticed at 15 before Garrow went to the bar. A sober and disapproving 'father' to Garrow's wayward, iconoclastic 'son', their relationship is at the same time warm and combative. Southouse despairs of Garrow's behavior in and around court but is also impressed by the results he gets. At times Southouse will instruct Garrow in a case and give the brief to defence counsel, but when all of Southouse's clients start expressly asking for Garrow as their counsel he knows he has to bow to the inevitable.

Silvester – played by Aidan McArdle

Prosecuting counsel, Garrow's rival in court and a man very much on the side of the status quo. Silvester is languid, insouciant and thinks he is Garrow's social superior but has a gnawing sense that, in Garrow, he has more than met his match. Silvester would have been perfectly happy treating the law as a 'game for gentlemen' but with the emergence of Garrow into the Old Bailey he knows he has to up his game and do whatever it takes to win the cases against him. By fair means or foul...

Lady Sarah Hill – played by Lyndsey Marshal

Sarah is a would-be social reformer but is hampered in any such ambition because she is caught in an establishment marriage – and is a woman. She sees in Garrow's passion for change a like-minded soul. She has to help him surreptitiously and, more than that, she also has to hide the passion she begins to feel for him but finds she cannot...

Sir Arthur Hill – played by Rupert Graves

An MP with a special interest in law and order, he is sharp, witty and ambitious. His ambition makes him dangerous and he dislikes Garrow's attitude, perceiving his radical intentions as a threat to the law. However, he also begins to see him as a threat to his own marriage. He wants Garrow brought down for both of those reasons...