Masters of the Bench

For ten years from 2010 Clive Coleman was the BBC's Legal Correspondent covering major legal news stories across the BBC news output, a role in which he won multiple journalism awards.  He became a journalist via a career as a barrister, Principal Lecturer in Law, and then one of the country's leading comedy writers. For six years from 2004-10 he presented the BBC's flagship legal analysis programme Law In Action on Radio 4, a role for which, in 2009, he won the Bar Council's Legal Broadcasting Award. He has presented many other television and radio programmes for the BBC including BBC One's Panorama , and for BBC Radio 4: Profile ; Pick of the Week; and The Cases That Changed Our World . Clive began his career as a barrister in 1986 at the chambers of Robin Stewart QC at 2 Harcourt Buildings, Temple. He practised in both civil law and crime, for prosecution and defence.His television writing credits include: Dead Ringers', Spitting Image, and Chambers, his BBC One sit-com about barristers, starring John Bird, and Sarah Lancashire.

His radio credits include, Weekending, The News Huddlines and the sit-com Spending My Inheritance. Clive has also written television drama for the ITV series The Bill.

In October 2017 his play Young Marx , co-written with Richard Bean and directed by Sir Nicholas Hytner, opened London's Bridge Theatre. He also co-wrote the film 'The Duke' starring Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent which received its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.  In 1992, Clive won BBC Radio Light Entertainment Contract Writers Award. In 1998, he won the BBC's inaugural Frank Muir Award for outstanding comedy writing. He has also written regularly on The Times comment pages and for The Guardian and The Independent.