The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England and Wales. It is the higher court of first instance in criminal cases, and is equal in stature to the High Court, which hears civil cases as well as criminal appeals from the Magistrates' Courts. It sits in around 90 locations in England and Wales. Previously divided into six circuits - Midland, Northern, North Eastern, South Eastern, Wales& Chester and Western - it is now divided into seven regions - Midlands, North East, North West, South East, South West, London and Wales. The Wales region was added to enforce the new law creating powers formed by use of the Welsh Assembly Government blank">http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/aboutus.htm. The Central Criminal Court (the _Old Bailey), which was originally established by its own Act of Parliament, is now part of the Crown Court, and is one of the main criminal courts in London.

The Crown Court carries out four principal types of activity: appeals from decisions of magistrates; sentencing of defendants committed from magistrates’ courts, jury trials, and the sentencing of those who are convicted in the Crown Court, either after trial or on pleading guilty. On average defendants in custody face an average waiting time of 13 weeks and 3 days. Those on bail experience greater delay having to wait 15 weeks and 4 days.

Crown Court was an ITV afternoon television courtroom drama that started in 1972, which was the same year the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in England and Wales. The last episodes aired in late March 1984. Down, R., Perry, C. (1995). The British Television Drama Research Guide, 1950-1995. Dudley: Kaleidoscope. ISBN 1-900203-00-6

A court case in the Crown Court of the fictional town of Fulchester (coincidentally a town of the same name was the primary setting for many of the cartoon strips from the comic Viz) would typically be played out over three weekdays in half-hour episodes although for a short period complete stories were shown on Saturday evenings and occasionally cases would occupy two or even one episode. Although those involved in the case were actors, the jury was made up of members of the general public from the local Granada Television area taken from the electoral register and eligible for real jury service: it was this jury alone which decided the verdict. Indeed, production publicity of the time stated that, for many of the scripts, two endings were written and rehearsed to cope with the jury's independent decision which was delivered for the first time, as in a real court case, when the foreman was asked by the actor playing the judge, while the programme's recording progressed. However, the course of some cases would lead the jury being directed to return "not guilty" verdicts.

Unlike some other legal dramas the cases in Crown Court were presented from a relatively neutral point of view rather from the perspective of any particular party and the action was confined to the courtroom itself with occasional brief glimpses of waiting area outside the courtroom. The stories features a wide variety of criminal charges and also some civil cases such as libel, insurance or copyright claims.

The series was occasionally humorous and was even capable of self-parody: the 1977 story The Upward Fall, written by absurdist playwright N.F. Simpson, was played for laughs. In this bizarre case, an old people's home was built atop a cliff some 3000 feet high but had its only lavatories located at the foot of the cliff.

Regulars included John Barron and William Mervyn as judges, John Alkin, Bernard Gallagher, Dorothy Vernon, Richard Wilson and William Simons as barristers.

Future famous names to appear on the show included Eleanor Bron, Warren Clarke, Tom Conti, Brian Cox, Michael Elphick, Sheila Fearn, Brenda Fricker, Derek Griffiths, Nigel Havers, Bernard Hill, Peter Jeffrey, Maureen Lipman, Ben Kingsley, Ian Marter, T. P. McKenna, Mark McManus, Vivien Merchant, Geraldine Newman, Judy Parfitt, Robert Powell, Peter Sallis, Juliet Stevenson, Mary Wimbush, Michael Sheard and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy star, Mark Wing-Davey, Mary Miller.

Its writers included N. F. Simpson, John Godber, Cathy Come Home writer Jeremy Sandford, and the New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh