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TV

Interview: Judge Rinder

He's ITV's shrewd judge of character

August 21, 2014 12:23
Robert Rinder: “There has to be a sensible legal core, even if you appear silly or theatrical”

By

Simon Round,

Simon Round

4 min read

Those who have yet to watch ITV's Judge Rinder may wonder why a show which is basically a reconstruction of the work of the small claims court has quickly generated one of the biggest daytime television audiences. The answer is almost certainly the judge himself. In his day-to-day life, Robert Rinder is not actually a judge but a fairly stellar criminal barrister whose practice focuses mainly on international fraud, money laundering and other forms of financial crime. But in his parallel existence on daytime TV, Rinder is the Simon Cowell of the bench, commenting in a cutting, witty and decidedly camp manner over civil disputes involving gardening, business loans and family members rowing over money in a British version of the hit American show, Judge Judy.

Litigants have agreed to have their cases ruled upon on TV rather than in a court of law and while the legal processes and rulings are consistent with the small claims court, Rinder does have a little more licence to be opinionated. He has already called one claimant "stupid" and told another that "if you had been at the Last Supper, you would have asked for ketchup". It is fair to say that his views are on the blunt side of forthright.

Yet Rinder says that until a few months ago, he had no aspirations to be on TV. "I used to write scripts and I attempted to sell one of them. I ended up talking to the head of ITV Daytime, Helen Warner," he explains. "She said she was not sure about the programme I suggested but asked if I had considered doing this kind of show."

Rinder thought it would be worth giving it a go. And the programme - now finishing its second week - attracts an audience of 1.1 million-plus, considerably more than the channel's breakfast show.