We hear her reprimanding Mr Cooper, the booming, patronising defence counsel in a rape case.     Mr Drake the brutal rapist is sentenced by her to seven years, half of the sentence at least to be served in prison.  She has seen Mr Drake’s mother weeping at the sentence given to her son.

We start to be reminded that as well as a judge, she is a mother with a teenage son who can’t find the Hawaiian shirt for a themed party when his repeated phone callsi nterrupt her in the middle of a court case. A flash back scene shows her son Harry (Jasper Talbot) acting guiltily watching a video and she assumes it is porn.  She delivers a lecture on why porn is misleading only to discover it is a video game he doesn’t want her to know he’s watching. Her husband Michael Wheatley (Jamie Glover) is also a successful KC barrister but who hasn’t been accorded judge status: a slight rivalry here.

Some of the play shows her mothering, panic at losing her child when he’s a toddler, discussing sex with him and respect for girls when he’s older.  We see Jessica having fun on a karaoke night – an unlikely leisure time pursuit we feel.  Jamie has a signature yellow coat with fur lined hood at all ages so we can have scenes of his upbringing.  She sends him to shop for party food at Tesco. She’s insisting that he doesn’t go to more upmarket supermarkets as loyalty to her working class roots;  again unlikely unless she’s shopping for Tesco Finest!