One of the beneficiaries and main instigators of these changes was a barrister who was largely lost to history until he was recently resuscitated by academic historians, and latterly by the BBC: William Garrow. His fall into rapid obscurity is due to the fact that unlike his great contemporaries he was no defender of civil liberties and no great orator. In his later years he became a Tory MP and Attorney-General who opposed both political and penal reform, and, in cases of criminal libel, defended the use of special juries selected by the Crown. Perhaps paradoxically, Garrow's early years as a barrister – mainly for the defence – mark him out as one of the pioneers of the art of advocacy and of the adversarial system. He helped effect a revolution in the conduct of court proceedings and greatly improved the lot of the accused.

Born in Middlesex, the son of a Scottish clergyman and schoolmaster, Garrow was apprenticed to Thomas Southouse, an attorney in Cheapside, who encouraged his young protégé to strive for the Bar. After completing his articles, Garrow enrolled in Lincoln's Inn in 1778, and was called five years later. For the eight years he had lived in London he had been fascinated by the criminal law, and regularly attended the Old Bailey. He now stepped out with wig and gown onto the familiar stage on which he would perform wonderfully for the next two decades.