Paul Temple

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Paul Temple is a fictional character invented by English author Francis Durbridge (1912-1998). Some of the novels were written in collaboration with John Thewes, Douglas Rutherford or Charles Hatten and those with Rutherford were even published under the name "Paul Temple" and by this making the fictional writer a "real" one.

Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction. Together with his wife "Steve", he solves the featured "Whodunit" crimes subtle humorous dialogues and rare "action". The introductory and closing music for the long-running BBC radio series was Coronation Scot (a musical depiction of a train journey) written by Vivian Ellis.

Paul Temple was "born" in the 1930s as a radio detective and later was adapted for film, the first of which was released in 1946 as Send for Paul Temple. In all four cinema movies were made:

  • 1946 Send for Paul Temple with Anthony Hulme
  • 1948 Calling Paul Temple with John Bentley
  • 1950 Paul Temple's Triumph with John Bentley
  • 1952 Paul Temple Returns with John Bentley


Durbridge licensed the character to the BBC, which has made since 1969 64 TV episodes, starring Francis Matthews as Paul Temple, who was assisted by Ros Drinkwater as his wife Steve. 52 parts of the series were produced together with the German TV-station ZDF, making it the very first international co-production of the TV era. The theme tune of the series was written by British composer Ron Grainer.

But as told before, the stories about Paul Temple also were very successful as radio serials. So again in Germany, where 12 Paul Temple-novels were converted in the 1960s into radio serials, each part ending with a cliffhanger, making them to "Straßenfeger", which were listened to by huge numbers of people, leaving streets deserted. The speakers were of national renown, e.g. Paul Temple was spoken by actor Rene Deltgen (born a Luxembourgian) and he was supported by e.g. Gustav Knuth, Paul Klinger and others. Almost all radio serials are, despite their age, published on CD as audio-books in the meantime.

In Britain, several Paul Temple radio plays were broadcast from the 1930s to the 1960s. While several actors and actresses portrayed the Temples over the years, the best known portrayal of the couple was by Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury. Many of the serials staring Coke and Westbury were aired from 2003 onwards by digital radio station BBC 7.

In August 2006, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new 8-part re-creation of one of the lost early radio serials, Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery, which was originally broadcast in 1947. Crawford Logan as Paul Temple and Gerda Stevenson as Steve effectively channeled the earlier incarnation in a mono production employing vintage microphones and sound effects.

Two short-living comic-series by the Aachener Bildschriftenverlag and the Luna-Kriminalromane are rare collector's items.

There was a Paul Temple comic strip in the London Evening News from about the mid nineteen-fifties to the early nineteen-sixties.

[edit] German Paul Temple radio serials

  • 1949 Paul Temple und die Affäre Gregory
  • 1951 Paul Temple und der Fall Curzon
  • 1953 Paul Temple und der Fall Vandyke
  • 1954 Paul Temple und der Fall Jonathan
  • 1955 Paul Temple und der Fall Madison
  • 1957 Paul Temple und der Fall Gilbert
  • 1958 Paul Temple und der Fall Lawrence
  • 1959 Paul Temple und der Fall Spencer
  • 1961 Paul Temple und der Fall Conrad
  • 1962 Paul Temple und der Fall Margo
  • 1966 Paul Temple und der Fall Genf
  • 1967 Paul Temple und der Fall Alex

[edit] German audio-books featuring the Paul Temple radio serials

[edit] External link

The Paul Temple File

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