Paul Temple: The Complete Radio Collection: Volume One: The Early Years (1938-1950)

Francis Durbridge

Feb 2016 · BBC Digital Audio · Narrated by Carl Bernard, Full Cast, and Hugh Morton

About this audiobook

Three complete radio dramas featuring writer-cum-amateur detective Paul Temple, plus bonus archive material. When it comes to classic crime partnerships, Paul Temple and his wife Steve are the crème de la crème. Between 1938 and 1968 their glamorous exploits enthralled generations of radio listeners around the world. Here, presented in chronological order, are some of the amateur detective's earliest adventures. 'Send for Paul Temple' (1940) is an early remake of the now-lost original 1938 BBC production. 'Paul Temple Intervenes' (1942) finds Paul and Steve investigating a series of celebrity murders, whilst 'Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair' (the original 1950 production, presented here for the very first time) concerns the strange disappearance of the Desmond baby and her sitter. Hugh Morton, Bernard Braden, Carl Bernard and Peter Coke play Paul in these episodes, with Bernadette Hodgson, Peggy Hassard and Marjorie Westbury as Steve. A bonus disc features rare archive material from otherwise lost productions, including the final episodes of 'Send for Paul Temple' (1938) and 'Paul Temple and the Front Page Men' (1938). Duration: 11 hours approx.

Ratings and reviews

In general I like the Paul Temple radio plays. This contains "Send for Paul Temple", "Paul Temple intervenes" and "Paul Temple and the Van Dyke Affair", two mini documentaries, a classical piece used in the recordings, and some random chapters from other episodes. The reason I only gave 3 stars is that I don't think the early stories are as good as the latter ones (Steve is a bit wet and I found Paul irritating), and the extra chapters didn't add anything for me.

awesome! I love this series.

as good as any radio play can be

About the author

Francis Durbridge ( 1912 – 1998) was an English playwright and author.
In 1938 he created the character Paul Temple, a crime novelist and detective. With Steve Trent, a Fleet Street journalist and later his wife, Temple solved numerous crimes in the glamorous world of the leisured middle classes, first on radio, then in films and, from 1969 to 1971, in a television series. In addition to the Paul Temple series, Durbridge wrote other mysteries for radio and television, many of which were also produced for Dutch, German and Italian television and radio.e with seven plays, the last of which, Sweet Revenge, was written in 1991. He also wrote forty-three novels, many of which were adapted from his scripts, sometimes with the help of others.