Paul Temple Intervenes

Durbridge, Francis

ISBN 10: 0563527943 ISBN 13: 9780563527947

Publisher: BBC Books, 2005

Synopsis

From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series. They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case. The murder of well-known American Myron Harwood, found dead in a small country lane, heralds the start of a series of celebrity murders. Each time, the body is found with a small, square piece of white cardboard bearing the inscription 'The Marquis'. When the eighth victim, a girl, is picked out of the river with the same card attached to her dress, a note from Paul Temple is delivered to Sir Graham Forbes. The message reads: 'Is it true what they say about Rita?' Rita Cartwright was a private detective investigating the Marquis murders - and now she too has ended up dead. With the police baffled and the Home Secretary specially requesting his involvement, Paul Temple has no choice but to intervene...

2 CDs. 2 hrs 20 mins.

About this title

About the Author

Francis Durbridge was born in Hull in on 25 November 1912. He was educated in Bradford and went on to Birmingham University. It was while he was there that his radio play, Persuasion, was written and broadcast. After leaving university he worked for a short time in a stockbroker's office before realising that the only career he was really interested in was writing. For some time he toyed with the idea of creating a detective who was also a crime novelist, but was unable to finalise the character to his satisfaction until 1938. The end result, Paul Temple, inhabited a world of luxurious sports cars, Knightsbridge flats and chic women - a bygone age of elegance and manners. Durbridge had his first detective novel published at the age of twenty-two and went on to write three dozen more. Paul Temple made his first radio appearance on 8 April 1938 on the BBC's Midland Region. Send for Paul Temple was a huge success: within a week of the serial's final instalment the BBC received 7000 letters demanding more. A second adventure, Paul Temple and the Front Page Men, was broadcast in November and December 1938 and was even more popular than the first. The theme tune for the series was Vivian Ellis' Coronation Scot, which became instantly recognisable to the millions of Temple listeners. In all, twenty-one series of Paul Temple were broadcast over a period of thirty years. During the 1950s and '60s Durbridge transferred his skills to television; Portrait of Alison, Melissa and The Scarf are just a few of the serials that gripped the nation during those years. They all adhered to the writer's golden formula: 'Everybody is lying, nothing is as it seems.' His appeal was widespread: in Germany in particular a new Durbridge television thriller was apparently enough to clear the cinemas. In 1967 the European Broadcasting Union commissioned him to create a radio serial for the international market. The result, La Boutique, made for riveting listening. Durbridge was an extremely entertaining writer and the clever twists and turns of his plots were guaranteed to keep audiences tuning in week after week. He also wrote nine plays for the theatre: Suddenly at Home, The Gentle Hook, House Guest and A Touch of Danger all ran successfully in the West End. He married Norah Lawley in 1940 and had two sons. Francis Durbridge died in London on 10 April 1998.

Review

‘Francis Durbridge, made [Paul and Steve’s] adventures utterly enchanting within that shivering threadbare postwar reality.’–The Telegraph

‘A classy period piece, all clipped accents, glamour and a smoking and drinking count to rival Mad Men. Great fun and surprisingly gripping.’ –The Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: BBC Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0563527943
• ISBN 13: 9780563527947
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1