The Blind Goddess

Apapted from a play by Sir Patrick Hastings, this class-bound courtroom drama is utterly of its time, what with its nice young hero ('Darling, I've been a blithering idiot'), its masterful King's Counsel ('I object - to nothing'), its sternly impartial judge. Add Maurice Denham and Thora Hird as the servant class ('Cook would like a word, ma'am'), plus the thought that rock'n'roll was still eight years away, and you catch a glimpse of the hell that must have been 1948. Of mild interest are Portman's delivery, a cadenced gabble, with words hurtling into one another like a motorway pile-up; and the way in which, having dared to make Lord and Lady Brasted the stop-at-nothing villains, the writers still can't forbear from finding them really rather admirable and splendid. The title refers to Justice.