Sometimes the New Street Law barristers find themselves meeting socially immediately after battling in court. Did that happen to you?

My practice was in London where you're not so often in court with people that you know. But I've been in court where the Judge, a part-time Judge, an assistant recorder and my opponent were all colleagues from chambers.

I think the Bar is one of the most honourable of professions because in Court everybody accepts that we abide by the rules, nothing is to be taken personally, and each person does the best they can whether in defence or prosecution. Mentally, I wasn't suited to that, because I got far too worked up about cases I was involved with.

"John Hannah's character Jack Roper is, not quite a fantasy figure, but the kind of barrister I would like to be represented by."

We're a bit too cosy. We're not gloves-off enough. If you're a client, you might be really frustrated by the rather gentlemanly way in which proceedings take place. And to that extent, John Hannah's character Jack Roper is, not quite a fantasy figure, but the kind of barrister I would like to be represented by. One who goes to the limit and then beyond.

But Charlie Darling is a more representative figure?

Yes, very much so. Charlie Darling is a pragmatist. In reality, if barristers took every case to heart they would quickly go nuts. Doctors can't, it's exactly the same. There has to be detatchment.

Did you have to sacrifice realism for entertainment at all in the court scenes?

As far as dramatically possible, it's realistic. We telescope time, make things happen more quickly, but in terms of procedure, try to be as accurate as possible.

There's a little bit of posturing. For instance, there's been a whole new raft of legislation about what evidence is admissible in criminal trials, and some of it is relatively untested. For example, defendants' propensity to commit certain types of acts, whether convicted of them or not, is admissible. So, not only someone's previous convictions of violence, but any incidents of violence which haven't led to criminal prosecution can be brought in as evidence.

In episode 7 I've taken a bit of poetic licence by anticipating how that law might really bite in practice. But there's certainly no deliberate altering of the process. My father-in-law is a very senior judge, so I feel strangely accountable. I have to be careful not to stretch reality.

What do the rest of your colleagues think of you writing about them?

"Criminal barristers have to perform, so they're rather like actors, and they're attracted to that world."

Barristers tend to be quite close to actors, particularly criminal barristers. Not civil barristers, they're quite dry, academic, other-worldly people. Criminal barristers have to perform, so they're rather like actors, and they're attracted to that world.

My former pupil-master, now a QC, has ended up being a legal adviser to lots of shows - first to Kavanagh QC, so he's a wonderful source of information and anecdote. Some of them take it a bit too seriously, and react almost as if I'm is trying to create a documentary rather than a drama.

I'm interested in this issues such as; 85% of people who pass through the criminal courts are young men between the ages of 15 and 25, for example. As a society we've chosen to neglect them. We don't do anything with them, they drift into crime.

I like to look at the emotional reasons and what brought people to this point of crisis. I think that's of more universal dramatic interest than something about the law. The law's merely the framework within which we tell emotional stories.

Is there anything that annoys you about the depiction of the legal process on TV?

What annoys me is Americanisms in British TV. It really annoys me in news reporting when they talk about witnesses taking the stand, when there's no such think in a British court, it's a witness box. Even BBC news reporters do it.

Worst of all in British dramatic portrayal of a court is when it's too theatrical and you feel like you're watching an Edwardian proceeding, not a modern one. Things happen quite conversationally in court. Barristers aren't hopping around like actors on stage, they're doing a job.

It becomes a struggle to get actors in drama just to be natural. My object is to get them to be as natural as possible and forget that they're performing in a courtroom.