The world has changed... it would be difficult to bring back Judge Rinder

BARRISTER AND TV PERSONALITY ROBERT RINDER TALKS TO HANNAH STEPHENSON ABOUT WHY HIS REALITY SHOW WOULD NOT WORK IN 2025, IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND HIS NEW BOOK

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HE MADE his TV name as Judge Rinder, known for his acerbic comments, confidence and ability to resolve real-life disputes on the reality court show with his unique blend of wit and solemnity.

But little more than a decade since the show launched (it ran from 2014-2020), barrister, TV personality and author Rob Rinder says it would be difficult to bring it back because of the pressure of social media on participants.

“The world has changed in terms of how we can safely get contributors to come on television and talk about their private lives.

“It's a very different world from coming on television and talking about some of the more intimate aspects of your life or personal conflict you’re experiencing when you don’t have to suffer the tsunami of abuse that you get nowadays on social media.

“Nowadays, just to go on University Challenge, for example, they really have to satisfy themselves that these poor students are able to withstand the potential abuse they might receive online by virtue of showing up to a quiz show.”

Eloquent and intelligent, you wouldn't imagine Rob, 47, criminal barrister, documentary-maker, TV presenter and recent Bafta winner, would ever have confidence issues, but he admits suffering imposter syndrome when he began his legal career.

“I think everybody does, to some extent, other than the most awful. If you stand up thinking, ‘I deserve to be here and I'm fantastic’, then you're probably not going to be a good lawyer. But in my case I absolutely had a sense that the world of the bar didn’t belong to me, that I was somehow lucky to be there and that there had been a mistake.

“I think that’s true of most people who arrive having worked hard from the type of working class background that I came from, where around you there weren't really that many people who operated or worked in those worlds.”

But his imposter syndrome didn’t last long, Rob stresses.