It was created by Simon Wheeler and stars Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a Norfolk solicitor who is coping with family, colleagues, and the strange locals who come to him for legal assistance.

Despite a mid-series ratings dip, the executive chairman of ITV praised the programme and ordered a second series, which was filmed in 2007 and broadcast in January and February 2008.

Stephen Fry announced in October 2009 that ITV was cancelling the series, a fact later confirmed by the channel, which said that given tighter budgets, more expensive productions were being cut.

[1] The series follows Peter Kingdom, a small-town solicitor whose work revolves around cases brought by the eclectic and eccentric populace of Market Shipborough.

The series retains a largely episodic format, where self-contained plots play out before the hour concludes, though a continuing storyline concerns the mysterious disappearance of Simon Kingdom, Peter's half-brother.

While searching for his brother, who drove off the previous night, Peter encounters something unseen by the audience, which is revealed to be Simon's dead body in Series 3.

[9] Bremner, known more for satire than acting, has joked that he played the vicar "as" Michael Howard and Rowan Williams and that his character's name was "Jane", due to an error in the script.

[10] Guest stars confirmed for the third series include Pippa Haywood, James and Oliver Phelps,[11] June Whitfield, Peter Sallis, Colin Baker, Sandi Toksvig, Jack Dee, Miriam Margolyes, Adrian Scarborough, Sophie Winkleman, Anna Massey and Jaye Griffiths.

[12] Wheeler spent two years developing the idea for the series before filming began in 2006 and proposed the Peter character as "helping people more than doing the law".

Stephen Fry disapproved of the title and raised the point that it would be difficult to produce six scripts featuring his character dealing with probate issues.

[16] The producers noted that Oakleigh House was ideal for the offices as there was an "authenticity" of opening the door straight onto the market square, instead of a transition from studio to location footage.

His counsel successfully postponed the hearing until December, allowing filming to resume unaffected (Fry was eventually banned from driving for six months).

[24] Comments by The Stage echoed this, calling the storyline a "run of the mill affair", but praised the locations and referred to the series as a whole as "nice".

[25] Following the broadcast of the first episode The Guardian wrote that the series "slips down as smoothly as a pint of Adnams" and (with tongue in cheek) welcomed it as a change from "loutish" Michael Kitchen in "relentlessly vulgar" fellow Sunday-night drama Foyle's War.

"[28] An ITV spokesman told the paper: "We hired a professional dialect coach to help the actors achieve their Norfolk accent.

[29] Following Simon's reappearance in the second series, a writer on The Herald expressed disappointment that the air of mystery had gone from the programme; "As the sage and saintly Peter, Stephen Fry no longer has any great detective-style fraternal conundrum to unravel, or agonise over.

[33] Filming of the series in Swaffham and surrounding areas gave a boost to the local economy, dubbed "the Kingdom effect" by producer Georgina Lowe.

Businesses capitalised on the popularity of the series by offering guided tours of featured locations, as well as tourist merchandise such as "Kingdom rock" and postcards.

[34] Lowe gave a lecture to Swaffham's Iceni Partnership in 2007, in which she explained that the production team used local businesses "for everything from equipment and scaffold rental to buying props, costumes, food and drink".

Seven regional European Hallmark Channels broadcast it, with other showings on NRK in Norway, RÚV in Iceland, YLE in Finland, Rai Tre in Italy[39] and één in Flanders.

A soundtrack album featuring the original music from the series, composed and conducted by Mark Russell was released on 15 June 2009 and is only available through the iTunes Store at the moment.