Yes, it's just a fairy tale about a solicitor in a picturesque British market town, his wacky family, and equally eccentric clients and fellow townsmen, but I totally fell in love with it. Sadly, it only ran three years before being canceled for being costly to produce, but at least we have those three years. I recently watched it on Netflix and had a difficult time getting through the last two episodes. I kept pausing the streaming because I didn't want to get to the end of the series. Stephen Fry is simply wonderful as Peter Kingdom, but so is the rest of the cast in their roles as family, colleagues, and clients. This show is such a charmer, you might well fall in love with it too.

If I had to use one word to describe this show it would be Finesse. This is a Lawyer show written in a way that no USA Lawyer show could be written. Nothing blows up, no long courtroom drama speeches, just good solid stories, brilliant characters, and solid writing. I found the story lines brilliant, and the series completely captivating, and I found myself laughing out loud in every episode.The Series is currently available on both NetFlix and Hulu (free), and well worth a look.I was so captivated and intrigued by this series that I was up until 4:00 in the morning watching episode after episode.Definitely fine intelligent heartwarming entertainment.Stephen Fry is brilliant as Peter Kingdom, the prime character. Celia Imrie is very good as the long suffering office assistant, and Karl Davis is also brilliant as the young (horny) trainee lawyer. Those performances combined the a quirky cast of supporting characters makes this a very enjoyable series. Highly recommended.

Stephen Fry, playing an attorney with a young, eager-beaver legal intern, lives and works in a small seaside town somewhere in England. The show has wit and charm--also, it delivers thematically with usually understated or just matter of fact truths about life. Fry is truly great in this role, where he is asked to be the man everyone likes and to whom they turn to solve their problems, legal and otherwise. His character's sister is over the top with obvious, but not major, psych problems. But she makes a great contrast to the almost always unflappable Fry. A special mention should go to the actress who plays Fry's secretary/receptionist. She helps to make the show seem real by being a good person whose presence helps Fry to solve the problems of the various denizens of this village. At 18 episodes, the show is incomplete---the final episode does not in any way wrap up the show or give a sense of an ending. Three good reasons why show stopped: cancelled--Brit t.v. is notorious for cancelling popular shows (did it with Foyle's War and outcry was so great that it was brought back for a few more shows); Fry is a millionaire who may have decided that he'd had enough; the episodes had covered a lot of ground in terms of what it's like to live in a small village with quirky characters and situations. Anyway, with all he junk on t.v., it is truly too bad that a quality show only gets 18 episodes. I believe that with a bit of creativity many more stories could have been engendered and not have been repetitive or boring.

There are only 18 episodes of this series. I am a bit disappointed with that as the last episode ends with an unresolved cliffhanger. I doubt they are going to go back and add to the series so there are some unknowns that we are left with. :( That being said, the acting is fine and the stories told are refreshingly British. It is a great alternative to USA network television. Those reviewers here who found some of the characters a bit grating are right, but I think that is just a device used to make the Fry character appear patient. They did mellow out Mr. Snegg as the series went on. I guess if you like Doc Martin you'll enjoy Kingdom. The opening sky-high camera shots show how beautiful the scenery is.