Home / Series / BBC Documentaries / Aired Order / Season 2011 / Episode 23

Outside the Court

They arrive, they smoke, they wait - armed robbers seeking redemption, life-long thieves, addicts and anxious fathers of wayward children. Hard exteriors hide soft centres, old lives exist in young bodies - ordinary people awaiting judgement on an unlovely stretch of pavement outside a London magistrates' court. Whilst waiting for their cases to be heard they reveal their lives, and the complexities of the human soul are laid bare. Tense and intimate conversations with the filmmaker illuminate stories that the magistrates hear daily. Director Marc Isaacs spent three months outside Highbury Magistrates Court and, in doing so, demonstrates how the eye of the camera has the ability to delve much deeper into character and motivation than the eye of the law. Consequently, the more we get to know the characters in this film, the harder it is to make easy judgements. Whilst the court must judge, the filmmaker need not.

English
  • Originally Aired January 31, 2011
  • Runtime 60 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network BBC
  • Created February 1, 2011 by
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  • Modified February 1, 2011 by
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Name Type Role
Marc Isaacs Director