Silk: bring me up to date!

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

I've been watching the second series of this but didn't see any of the first series.

Who wants to give me a precis?

Specific questions:

• what is 'silk'?
• what is the history between Martha and Clive? (there is history, isn't there? It seems like it.)
• is it just me or is the script and acting often a bit rubbish? (apart from Maxine 'Goddess' Peake and Phil D)
• why oh why is Rupert Penry-Jones poor man's Paul Bettany considered a heart-throb?
• is Phil Davis in everything? (don't mind though; love him)

sorry - can't - gave up after half an episode. got confused and kept thinking it was 'whitechapel' Dull dull dull

I can only answer:

• I don't know what 'silk' is. I guess it's a more prestiguous role within Chambers?
• Martha and Clive shagged once/a few times whilst on a business trip. There was no long lasting romance but she became pregnant. She miscarried in series 1.
• I can stand very low acting standards but yes, it can sometimes be craptaculer
• Rupert Penry-Jones makes me shudder with revulsion
• Phil Davis isn't in every episode (don't know if that is what you meant by "in everything"). I like him as an actor.

I wanted to watch but rupert playing a test ruined t for me

Translate that using your phone

lost me there bronze

thanks Change! I meant Phil Davis pops up all over the telly, not all over Silk.

I think 'silk' is 'Queen's Counsel' so yes, sounds more prestigious, but I can't work out if it means she can now take harder/higher-up cases or something?

Glad I'm not the only one mystified by Rupert P-J's sex-symbol status.

bronze, I've no idea what that was meant to say!

Didn't Rupert P-J have a fling with Kylie a few years ago - before he married of course!?

V lazy of me but here are the answers you seek...

I love Silk but my thwarted desire to be a barrister may account for much of it. I blame watching "Crown Court" during the school holidays in the 1970s.

Ruperts a twat in it. Which is a shame cos he's lovely normally especially as Adam

gazzalw, NO! Really?!?!

BelleDame, thank you. I can't be arsed reading Wikipedia at the mo (and was angling for more entertaining MN-style commentary a la 'Rupert's a twat', above ) but will come back to it.

Oh, in that case - Martha's fantastic; Clive/Rupert is a twat but appears to be redeeming himself in this series; Billy is up to all sorts - maybe fiddling the books but I suspect it'll all come out ok in the end.

Belle - 'Crown Court', that takes me back. I used to love that.

Back to Silk, Billy is definitely cooking the books and I think one of the clerks is going to figure it out quite soon. I don't understand how Billy seems to have all the 'power' and can just randomly go round threatening Clive.

Think DW told me having read it in a reputable article in Red Magazine or some such monthly.....

Oh, if it's Red it must be true .

Thanks for the precis, BelleDame. The corrupt, cocky, wide-boy senior clerk seems to be a stock figure in legal drama (see also This Life, North Square and, um, can't think of any others but maybe it happened on Crown Court too?

There was a really weird moment among many when Clive first met the solicitor he's shagging, and said 'Would you like a fuck ? um, I mean a drink?'. I really wasn't sure if we were meant to think that was funny and admirable, or cringe for him and hope she forgave him, or what. I generally have a hard time working out what the tone of the show is meant to be.

I don't like the solicitor he's shagging either. I think it may be the actress though cos she's annoyed me other things too
Much is made of him having gone to Oxford is there a reason for that?

I think Clive is your classic candidate to become a qc silk, but Martha working class back ground got it instead of him because in series one he was shagging his junior who just happened to be the daughter of the guy who decided not to grant him silk.

I'm liking the ex- copper turned lawyer, I think he and Martha might get in on before the end of the series.

Who's the ex-copper turned lawyer?

He is Clives' new Pupil who has been helping Martha out. I also think they will get together but it will be brief and he could turn nasty.

I wondered if the ex-policeman been brought in because Rupert might leave the show? If his case with the Bar Standards mob thingy goes badly he'd be out...

Yes and eyepatch lady is up to no good too.

Found the first episode scary and the violence really upset me. Like the series overall though.

I don't trust that new pupil as far as I could throw him, although that may be because I know the actor from a film where he was a rather frightening returned Iraq soldier with PTSD.

I feel like he's got a hidden agenda or dark side or both, and he and Martha will get close and then he'll reveal this less savoury side.

New pupil played Morse in Endeavour a few months back. Anyone else think that Martha has sold her soul to the devil in agreeing to defend Jody Farr?

Oh so he did! - I was trying to think what I'd seen him in before. I had in mind that he was young James Herriot
Yes definitely she has sold her soul, but that's her job isn't it?
I think if you are a Silk you are an official barrister and probably get more money. Also if Clive went to Oxford and had the right contacts (ie the nasty boys he was prosecuting in that episode who were obviously going to grow up to be PMs, etc) then it would be natural for him to suppose he was owed the title.
Actually he's too much of a d**k-led twit in this, but I always think he's worth watching. Swooned over him as Adam in Spooks but there, he's a competely different character........q. for budding actor Mumsnetters....how does he so completely remove his sex appeal in this role?

No idea but he does a bloody good job of it