h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Martin Shaw is one of those actors that I like enough to watch pretty much anything he is in. For several years I've read about the series Judge John Deed. So I finally got around to ordering it from Amazon.UK. It has such good reviews that I went ahead and ordered the entire 6 seasons. After the Bergerac fiasco I said I wasn't going to do that anymore, but I did.

I watched the pilot and liked it. Then I started on season one and was a bit disappointed to discover that each episode continued the storyline about his personal life. I enjoy the bits about the court cases, but I really am not interested in watching a soap opera. I suppose that the continuing saga of his love life, his loose cannon of a daughter, the ex-father-in-law who despises him and the colleagues who all spy on him and want him off the bench is all intended to drawn in the audience and keep them coming back episode after episode. With me it is having the opposite effect.

I have finished episode 2 of season 2. I started episode 3 and couldn't finish it. I still like Martin Shaw. And I do enjoy the legal wrangling of the cases. I just don't know if I want to put up with all the other stuff that is already annoying me. Perhaps if I watch one episode a month or something. Or I suppose I could just hit the fast forward button every time it switches from courtroom drama to soap opera.

The good news is that it's better than Bergerac.

I love martin Shaw, I grew up with him in 'The Professionals', as I was only a youngster, and it was on late at night, my Dad would wake me up and I would curl up on the couch with him to watch it, I never knew if my Mum knew Dad did this, but it was a real bonding moment with me dad, I was and still am a right Daddys girl

and on the subject of Judge John Deed, I was never a fan, like you, I felt it just a bit to much like watching a soap story

Loved him in the Professionals. I was a teenager at the time and I thought he was just soooo cute.

I can't say that I recognize the guy or any of the programs ... But sorry that you are again disappointed, Lady Prez