Playwright and author John Mortimer dies aged 85

Playwright and author John Mortimer dies aged 85

Playwright and author John Mortimer has died aged 85.

He is best known for creating the character of Rumpole of the Bailey.

He was was knighted in 1998 to became Sir John Mortimer.

He wrote the screenplay for "Tea with Mussolini", starring Judi Dench & Maggie Smith in in 1999.

"A Voyage Round My Father", his autobiographical play, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relationship with his blind father, was recently performed at the Donmar Warehouse & Wyndham's Theatre in 2006.

A double bill of "The Dock Brief" & "Edwin" under the title of "Legal Fictions" had a run at the Savoy Theatre in 2008.

In 2007 he was on the stage at the King's Head Theatre , in a show called "Mortimer's Miscellany" , in which John Mortimer along with distinguished guests, presented a show packed with stories, anecdotes from the legal world, poetry, music, the words of Byron, Auden, Hardy.