John Mortimer was a British dramatist and screenwriter educated at Oxford. He is best known in the United States for his comic-drama series Rumpole of the Bailey and for his textual adaptation of the popular miniseries Brideshead Revisited, both of which have been featured on American public television. He is the author of many literary works, among them, an autobiography, Clinging to the Wreckage, and a full-length play entitled Voyage Round My Father.