A Case For Paul Temple

Paul Temple BBC Serials #6

by Francis Durbridge

From 1938 to 1968 crime novelist and detective Paul Temple and his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve solved case after case in one of BBC Radio’s most popular series. Now the glamorous duo return to the airwaves to break a mysterious drug-running gang. Post-war London is buzzing with speculation about the deaths of ten young drug addicts within the space of just one week. The police are desperate to cut off supplies of heroin and cocaine to the capital, but they are struggling. So Sir Graham Forbes turns to Paul Temple. By fast car and police launch, on deserted houseboats and midnight beaches, in dodgy East End pubs and smart West End restaurants, braving booby traps, bullets and blazing houses, Paul and Steve pursue the ruthless and feared drug dealer known only as ‘Valentine’. This new production for BBC Radio 4 uses the original scripts, vintage sound effects and much of the original incidental music from the missing 1946 production. As far as possible it is a technical and stylistic replica of how that production might have sounded if its recording had survived.

Genres: Audiobook, Crime, Fiction

Audible Audio

First published November 22, 2011

About the author

Francis Henry Durbridge was an English playwright and author born in Hull. In 1938, he created the character Paul Temple for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple.

A crime novelist and detective, the gentlemanly Temple solved numerous crimes with the help of Steve Trent, a Fleet Street journalist who later became his wife. The character proved enormously popular and appeared in 16 radio serials and later spawned a 64-part big-budget television series (1969-71) and radio productions, as well as a number of comic strips, four feature films and various foreign radio productions.

Francis Durbridge also had a successful career as a writer for the stage and screen. His most successful play, Suddenly at Home, ran in London’s West End for over a year.

Reviews

[Morgan Giesbrecht]

Once again, I had hunches, I disregarded those hunches, and those hunches turned out to be right. What a ride! This one actually blew my mind.

Content: mild language

[Mary]

I like this series, I really do. But the constant referral to each other as "Daaah-ling" is irritatin; as is Steve repeatedly trying to pause one urgent crisis after another expecting Paul to take a time-out to explain what's going on since she's too stupid to figure it out. I realize women were still considered silly 2nd-class citizens in this time period but it grates.

[Stephen the Bookworm]

A routine story- escapist old fashioned tale

[Macky]

⭐️3.5⭐️

[David Highton]

A 194o story about out intrepid amateur detective and his wife

[Steven]

Rather well done, though not note-perfect, remake of one of the earliest Paul Temple serials, using a modern cast (which shows through from time to time),period equipment and sound effects, all mixed to mono. Despite the sometimes rather gruesome murders (each Paul Temple serial had enough murders to double the annual murder rate in the UK at the time, I suspect) and assaults, it's really very cozy and barely borderline exciting, despite the slightly faster pace of the performances from the actors (compare this to the pace of the extant serials from the 1950s.)

[Muphyn]

Good, solid Paul Temple case but not as exciting as some of the other ones.