One is Wilfred Morgenhall, a single barrister who never gets any cases and is overjoyed to have won this dock brief, the defence of an accused individual with no lawyer (at public expense).

[3] John Mortimer said that Peter Sellers wanted to play the role in a north county accent and the director James Hill had to coax him back "to what I felt were undoubtedly... southern origins" of his character.

[6] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "In its original form as a television play, John Mortimer's little legal joke was something of a minor masterpiece. ...

Pierre Rouve's adaptation has broadened and coarsened the original fabric and stretched it to take in flashback scenes which deaden by their explicitness where Mortimer was content to imply.

Richard Attenborough makes a close shot at the dim little murderer, but his performance is not altogether free of a suspicion of patronage, and he is handicapped by a grotesque make-up.

In spite of its shortcomings, The Dock Brief remains a refreshingly original line in British comedy, and the quality of the dialogue shines like a good deed in a naughty world.