A Trial to Watch

A Trial to Watch
Season	01
Episode	03
Air date	10th January 2020 (UK)12th May 2020 (USA)
Writer	Henry Shields Henry Lewis Jonathan Sayer
Director	Martin Dennis
Episode guide
Previous	The Pilot (Not the Pilot)
Next	The Lodge

A Trial to Watch is a legal drama performed by Cornley Drama Society. It is the third installment in The Goes Wrong Show, and was first aired in the UK on 10th January 2020.

Synopsis

Carl McKennon, a defence lawyer, and his ex-wife Becky Sandhurst go head to head in the trial of Jack Inwood for the murder of his brother Nigel. As the evidence is heard, the scene of the murder is played out; Jack went to his brother's house and, after a conversation, Nigel was killed. The autopsy shows he was probably killed by someone left-handed, and the opposing sides both argue their version of the story.

Carl requests a mistrial, and the court is adjourned. Jack thanks Carl for his efforts, inadvertently revealing he is left handed when he signs him a cheque. Jack then leaves his phone behind, and Carl reads the messages on it, which show that Jack was having an affair with Nigel's wife. Jack blackmails the judge into calling a mistrial the next day. At the gym, Carl meets Becky and decides to give her the phone, thereby giving her evidence to prove his client guilty.

The next day, the judge prepares to call a mistrial, but Carl withdraws his request. Nigel's wife confesses they were having an affair, and in light of the new evidence, the judge finds Jack guilty. Carl and Becky make up after the trial, and she confesses she still loves him.

Cornley Cast

• Dennis Tyde as Carl McKennon
• Chris Bean as Jack Inwood
• Vanessa Wilcock-Wynn-Carroway as Becky Sandhurst
• Robert Grove as Justice Shawcroft
• Annie Twilloil as Bailiff/Angela Inwood
• Max Bennett as Nigel Terence Inwood/Lawyer
• Sandra Wilkinson as Professor Imogen Winterbottom/Lawyer -
• Jonathan Harris as Foreman/Henry Brown (reporter)
• Jury Members - Cornley Drama Society Members

Trivia

• This is the first and only time in the series that Dennis has the lead role.
• According to the BBC episode description, Dennis took the part of Carl "due to a conversation with his grandmother that turned out to be legally binding". Originally in the script, he got the part because each actor had a certain "line quota", and Dennis had not had enough lines so far in the series.
• This is one of only two episodes where Dennis plays a human in season one, the other one being 90 Degrees.
• In the autopsy scene, a part was cut involving Sandra taking a lung out of the body and being hit in the face by it.
• The centimetres/inches mix-up actually happened with The Play That Goes Wrong on Broadway, when they gave measurements for a vase in inches and it was interpreted in centimetres, resulting in a tiny vase.
• Bryony Corrigan (Vanessa) and Dave Hearn (Max) did their own stunts in this episode.
  • A stunt double was used for when Annie fell on to the treadmill.
• When the autopsy set comes on for the second replay of the murder scene, Sandra is reading Robert Grove's "Anything You Can Act, I Can Act Louder".
• Ellie Morris, who played Lucy Grove in Peter Pan Goes Wrong and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, appears in this episode as a juror. However, she is not credited as Lucy.
• The box around Robert as Justice Shawcroft was quite fragile and kept falling apart.
• Nancy Zamit (Annie) was the only one of the actors short enough to stand up in the tiny set. In order to achieve the visual gag of her head pressed up against the ceiling in the opening scene, she had to stand on a box.
• Becky Sandhurst (Vanessa's character) is a female barrister who literally breaks a glass ceiling.
• The filmed insert of the reporter Henry Brown was actually supposed to be shot outside a court, but they ran out of budget, so it was filmed in the car park outside the rehearsal room.
• All of the cast were pronouncing "pince-nez" (Robert's glasses) one way, but the director said it a different way, and they realised they had been saying it wrong.
• There was a hole cut in the sofa in the living room set, for the part where Max gets his leg trapped.
• The scene in Justice Shawcroft's office was pre-recorded, as the cameras had to be perfectly positioned for the scene.
• This is the third time Sandra doesn't have the lead female role.
• In an interview, Henry Lewis (Robert) named this episode as his favourite from series 1.
• Annie and Max play a married couple in this production and also in the preceding episode, "Spirit of Christmas".
• Vanessa and Dennis are a divorced (reconciled?) couple here, and are also a married couple in "90 Degrees" - at least, they start out that way.
• Justice Shawcroft originally said "Oh, this is bollocks!" while trying to exit the court, but the BBC edited it out and replaced it with "Oh, this is cobblers!".

Gallery

Dennis & Chris