The British courtroom drama television series Judge John Deed, starring Martin Shaw as a maverick High Court judge, began with a pilot episode called "Exacting Justice", which was first broadcast on BBC One on 9 January 2001. The series proper began on 26 November 2001. The first to third series contained four 90-minute episodes, the fourth and fifth were extended to a six-episode run and the latest series comprised two 120-minute episodes split into two parts on broadcast. When it began, the programme followed an episodic format, though later series have developed a serialised format, with plots developing over a number of stories.