Judge John Deed - Production

Production

Newman devised his new series to highlight what he believed to be an out-of-touch judiciary and show "solutions" (a style that differed from his previous work, such as his 1970s series Law and Order, which was heavily critical of the police). Newman wrote the series intending to give the audience an exploration of the law without patronising them or getting caught up in an explanation of legal proceedings. A full series was commissioned before the pilot was broadcast. The series has been credited with renewing the "cop genre" by moving the story from a "maverick detective" to a high court judge, though as a comparison to Newman's previous work, a Guardian writer called it "rather soft" and doubted it would provoke questions in the House of Commons like Law and Order did.

Sets were constructed on the soundstages at Bushey, Hertfordshire for the courtroom, Deed's chambers and the main character's houses. Exterior court scenes were filmed at the Crown Court in Aylesbury. Location filming was also done at West Herts College for scenes in "My Daughter, Right or Wrong" (2006) and at various locations, including The Hague City Hall, (as film location for the International Criminal Court building in The Hague) for "War Crimes" (2007). The robes worn by Deed in the sixth series were authentic ones from Stanley Ley, a specialist legal outfitters, and cost £7,600. Theme music was composed for the series by Debbie Wiseman. The music, entitled "Judge John Deed", was performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and is described as a "stunning march-like theme that echoed throughout each of the programmes supplying pageantry to the Judge's sometimes-nefarious activities". It was released commercially on Wiseman's compilation album, Something Here, and as a single piece on online music retailers. From 2005 to 2007, television promotions for the series have been accompanied by the piano hook from "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone.

29 episodes were produced; the pilot, three series of four episodes, two series of six episodes and one series of two two-part serials. All episodes were written by Newman. At the time the sixth series concluded, the future of the series was in doubt; the BBC had announced an intention to use Martin Shaw in a range of new projects and it was apparent that the one-off adaption of Alan Hunter's Inspector Gently novels (starring Shaw as the eponymous inspector) would be commissioned for a full series. Jenny Seagrove clarified the situation, stating that the producers wanted to continue but she and Shaw were "taking a sabbatical" until the formula of the series was changed, implying that its future lay in the multi-part format introduced in series six. In April 2009, Shaw told BBC Breakfast that the series had been officially cancelled by the BBC because of financial cutbacks across the corporation. The six years the series was broadcast makes it the longest-running BBC legal drama.