Send for Paul Temple by Francis Durbridge

It is in the same vein as later radio plays in this series, but the characters seem even more wooden than expected. It is the first Paul Temple story and involves his meeting with Steve prior to their marriage. If you are a Paul Temple fan then this will be a curio that may interest you. The plots often involve cryptic clues and are well constructed, however, they can seem quite clichéd, but in a charming and lost era kind of way. Paul Temple’s lifestyle is upper middle class with live-in servant, foreign travel, posh cars, evening cocktail parties and night clubs. They involve an author/amateur sleuth, who is so effective at detective work that Scotland Yard regularly ask for his help in solving criminal mysteries. Paul Temple stories were popular in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. Two bonus features are also included: the sole surviving sixth episode of the original 1938 production, starring the original Paul Temple, Hugh Morton, and an unbroadcast interview with the longest-running Paul Temple actor, Peter Coke.

Digitally restored, all six episodes are now available for the very first time. However, this complete recording of a 1940 production - made for Canadian radio and based on the original BBC radio scripts - was recently rediscovered in the national Library and Archives of Canada. But who is the Knave? And can he be stopped?Īll but one episode of the original 1938 BBC production of Send for Paul Temple are lost from the archives. They are the work of a shadowy criminal mastermind known only as The Knave of Diamonds. In Paul and Steve’s very first adventure, starring Bernard Braden as Paul, with Peggy Hassard as Steve, a spate of jewel robberies in the Midlands has left the police baffled. Theirs was an exciting world of violence and glamour - car bombs and cocktail parties. Bernard Braden stars in an original 1940 full-cast production of the very first Paul Temple adventure.īetween 19, the exploits of amateur detective Paul Temple and his wife, Steve, enthralled generations of BBC radio listeners.

Send for Paul Temple by Francis Durbridge