Rough Justice (TV series)

Rough Justice
Created by	Peter Hill Martin Young
Presented by	Martin Young (1982-1986) David Jessel (1987-1992) John Ware (1993-1997) Kirsty Wark (1998-2007)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s)	Peter Hill (1980-1986) Steve Heywood (1987-1992) Charles Hunter Dinah Lord
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	1982 – 2007

Rough Justice was a BBC television series which investigated alleged miscarriages of justice. It was broadcast between 1982 and 2007, and played a role in securing the release of 18 people involved in 13 cases involving miscarriages of justice. The programme was similar in aim and approach to The Court of Last Resort, the NBC TV series that aired in the US between 1957 and 1958. It is credited with contributing to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission in 1997.Rough Justice was cancelled in 2007 due to budget restraints, leading to criticism from the media as the announcement came just as the BBC launched an £18 million Gaelic-language channel which would serve only 86,000 viewers.

The programme was devised and produced by Peter Hill, an investigative journalist, in 1979, motivated by Ludovic Kennedy's earlier television work in the same field and the work of Tom Sargant at reform group JUSTICE. In 1992 Hill recalled: "At that time there were equally important programmes being made by John Willis at Yorkshire Television and Ray Fitzwater at Granada. We were all investigating mistakes made before a case comes to trial. That was the problem in the early eighties - the legacy of police misconduct from the seventies." During this period, criminal justice procedure in the United Kingdom was uncodified. Until the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), and the creation of the Crown Prosecution Service in 1986, the police "decided what evidence to disclose." Following the introduction of PACE, David Jessel, who replaced Hill, acknowledged that the Act had "probably reduced police misconduct" but said that "the evidence of a plethora of post-PACE case papers is that the same old wickednesses continue, although in different guises. It is remarkable how many suspects these days "confess" in police cars on their way to PACE-protected police stations; and duty solicitors have tales to tell about the co-operation afforded them at some stations."

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