Send for Paul Temple by Francis Durbridge

Durbridge had his first detective novel published at the age of twenty-two and went on to write three dozen more. The end result, Paul Temple, inhabited a world of luxurious sports cars, Knightsbridge flats and chic women - a bygone age of elegance and manners.

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. 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. It was while he was there that his radio play, Persuasion, was written and broadcast. He was educated in Bradford and went on to Birmingham University. Read more Detailsįrancis Durbridge was born in Hull in on 25 November 1912. 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 adventureīetween 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