Paul Temple

Paul Temple is a fictional character created by British writer Francis Durbridge (1912-1998) for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple in 1938. Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction. Together with his journalist wife (Louise Temple, nee Harvey, affectionately known as "Steve" after her pen name "Steve Trent"), he solves "whodunnit" crimes with subtle, humorous dialogue and rare "action". Always the gentleman, his use of the phrase "by Timothy" was the nearest he ever got to swearing. Between 1938 and 2011, the Temples featured in over 30 BBC radio dramas, 12 serials for German radio, a BBC television series, a German animated series, four British feature films and several novels. In the Netherlands several of the radio plays were recorded with Dutch actors and with the main character's name translated to 'Paul Vlaanderen'. In addition, a Paul Temple comic strip featured in the London Evening News from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

British Paul Temple radio serials

Paul Temple was "born" as a radio detective. In Britain, several Paul Temple radio series were broadcast from the 1930s to the 1960s. While several actors and actresses portrayed the Temples over the years, including the Send for Paul Temple Again series which starred Barry Morse and aired in 1945, probably the best known portrayal of the couple was by Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury. The introductory and closing music for the majority of the long-running BBC radio series was Coronation Scot (a musical depiction of a train journey) composed by Vivian Ellis; the earliest serials, those aired prior to December 1947, used an excerpt from Scheherazade by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Most of the surviving serials starring Coke and Westbury have been repeated since 2003 by digital radio station BBC Radio 7. In 2006 the station tracked down the then 93-year-old Coke for a half-hour interview programme, Peter Coke and the Paul Temple Affair.

In August 2006 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new 8-part production recreating one of the lost early radio serials, Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery, which had aired in 1947; Crawford Logan starred as Paul Temple with Gerda Stevenson as Steve (in place of the original leads, Kim Peacock and Marjorie Westbury) in a mono production employing vintage microphones and sound effects. A new production of The Madison Mystery followed between May and July 2008, and a remake of the 1947 serial Paul Temple and Steve aired in June and July 2010. A remake of A Case for Paul Temple began transmission on 24 August 2011, and was released on CD in October 2011.

Paul Temple's catchphrase "by Timothy" originated with the character of Miss Amelia Victoria Parchment, an elderly spinster, as she spoke the final words in the book; Send for Paul Temple.

Serial title	Starring	Original broadcast dates	Episodes	Archive status
Send for Paul Temple	Hugh Morton as Paul Temple and Bernadette Hodgson as Steve Trent (AKA Louise Harvey)	8 April—27 May 1938 (BBC Midland region only)	8 x 25 minutes	1-5 & 7-8 lost, 6 exists
Paul Temple and the Front Page Men	Hugh Morton as Paul Temple and Bernadette Hodgson as Steve	1 November—21 December 1938 (BBC Midland region only)	8 x 25 minutes	1-7 lost, 8 exists
News of Paul Temple	Hugh Morton as Paul Temple and Bernadette Hodgson as Steve	13 November—18 December 1939	6 x 25 minutes	All lost
Send for Paul Temple (abridged remake)	Carl Bernard as Paul Temple and Thea Holme as Steve	13 October 1941	1 x 60 minutes	Lost
Paul Temple Intervenes	Carl Bernard as Paul Temple and Bernadette Hodgson as Steve	30 October—18 December 1942	8 x 20 minutes	Exists in full
News of Paul Temple (abridged remake)	Richard Williams as Paul Temple and Lucille Lisle as Steve	5 July 1944	1 x 60 minutes	Lost
Send for Paul Temple Again	Barry Morse as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	13 September—1 November 1945	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
A Case for Paul Temple	Howard Marion Crawford as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	7 February—28 March 1946	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Gregory Affair	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	17 October—19 December 1946	10 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and Steve	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	30 March—18 May 1947	8 x 30 Minutes	All lost
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Temple (abridged remake of Paul Temple and Steve)	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	23 November 1947	1 x 45 minutes	Lost
Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	1 December 1947—19 January 1948	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Curzon Case	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	7 December 1948—25 January 1949	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	12 October—30 November 1949	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	30 October—18 December 1950	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	10 May—28 June 1951	8 x 30 minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and Steve Again	Kim Peacock as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	8 April 1953	1 x 60 minutes	Lost
Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	29 March—17 May 1954	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full (this is the version available on CD/cassette from the BBC Radio Collection)
Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery (remake)	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	20 June—?? 1955	8 x 30 Minutes	All lost
Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	11 April—30 May 1956	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	13 November 1957—1 January 1958	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Vandyke Affair (remake)	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	1 January—19 February 1959	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Conrad Case	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	2 March—20 April 1959	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case (remake)	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	22 November 1959—??	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	1 January—19 February 1961	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery (remake)	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	14 October—2 December 1963	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	11 April—16 May 1965	6 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Alex Affair (remake of Send for Paul Temple Again, with name of villain changed from "Rex" to "Alex")	Peter Coke as Paul Temple and Marjorie Westbury as Steve	26 February—21 March 1968	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery (remake)	Crawford Logan as Paul Temple and Gerda Stevenson as Steve	7 August—2 October 2006	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery (remake)	Crawford Logan as Paul Temple and Gerda Stevenson as Steve	16 May—4 July 2008	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
Paul Temple and Steve (remake)	Crawford Logan as Paul Temple and Gerda Stevenson as Steve	11 June—30 July 2010	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full
A Case for Paul Temple (remake)	Crawford Logan as Paul Temple and Gerda Stevenson as Steve	24 August—12 October 2011	8 x 30 minutes	Exists in full

Paul Temple on film

Between 1946 and 1952 Paul Temple appeared in four feature films distributed by Butcher's Film Service (a film distributor based in the North of England, which also distributed films in the Old Mother Riley series of Northern comedies).

• 1946 Send for Paul Temple with Anthony Hulme (1910-2007) (born Harry Idris Miller) as Temple and Joy Shelton as Steve.
• 1948 Calling Paul Temple (based on Send for Paul Temple Again) with John Bentley as Temple and Dinah Sheridan as Steve.
• 1950 Paul Temple's Triumph (based on News of Paul Temple) with John Bentley as Temple and Dinah Sheridan as Steve.
• 1952 Paul Temple Returns (based on Paul Temple Intervenes) with John Bentley as Temple and Patricia Dainton as Steve.

German Paul Temple radio serials

In Germany, 12 Paul Temple novels were adapted as radio serials between 1949 and 1967, each episode (in common with the BBC serials) ending with a cliffhanger. They were listened to by such huge numbers of people that they earned the sobriquet Straßenfeger ("street sweepers"), because they left the streets practically deserted whenever an episode was broadcast. They were performed by actors of national renown, including Luxembourg-born René Deltgen (who played the title role in 11 of the 12 series), Gustav Knuth, and Paul Klinger amongst others. Almost all the German radio serials have since been released on CD as audiobooks. Two short-lived comic series by the Aachener Bildschriftenverlag and the Luna-Kriminalromane are rare collector's items.

British television series

Durbridge licensed the character to the BBC, which from 1969 made 64 one hour television episodes, in colour, starring Francis Matthews as Paul Temple, co-starring Ros Drinkwater as his wife Steve, with George Sewell. 52 of the episodes of the Paul Temple television series were co-produced with West German television station ZDF, making it the very first international co-production of the TV era, thereby making it practicable to film location scenes for the series in West Germany.

The co-produced episodes were dubbed into German, using German voice artists, for broadcasting in West Germany. Many of these dubbed episodes survive in the ZDF archives, in colour, but without any English language soundtracks. Only 11 colour episodes with English soundtracks were retained by the BBC.

The theme tune of the television series was written by Australian composer Ron Grainer.

German Animated Show

An animated version of Paul Temple starring Anthony Head was first broadcast in 2002.

Series One:

Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery

Series Two:

Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case

Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair

Paul Temple and the Alex Affair

Series Three:

Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery

Paul Temple and the Conrad Case

Paul Temple and the Jonathan Mystery

Series Four:

Paul Temple and the Spencer Affair

Paul Temple and the Vandyke Mystery

Paul Temple Intervenes

Series Five:

Paul Temple and the Curzon Case

Paul Temple and the Tyler Mystery

Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery

Series Six:

Paul Temple and the Kelby Affair

Paul Temple and the Harkdale Robbery

Send for Paul Temple

Series Seven:

Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery

News of Paul Temple

Series Eight:

Paul Temple and the Front Page Men

East of Algiers

Novels

Many of the British Paul Temple radio serials were novelized by Francis Durbridge between 1938 and 1989. Some of the novels in which the character appears were written in collaboration with John Thewes, Douglas Rutherford or Charles Hatten – and those with Rutherford were even published under the pen-name "Paul Temple", thus making the fictional writer a "real" one.

• Send for Paul Temple (1938), Anthony Head (2007)*

• Paul Temple and the Front Page Men (1939), Anthony Head (2009)*

• News of Paul Temple (1940), Anthony Head (2008)*

• Paul Temple Intervenes (1944), Toby Stephens (2011)*

• Send for Paul Temple Again! (1948)

• The Tyler Mystery (1957), Anthony Head (2006)*

• East of Algiers (1959), Anthony Head (2009)* - based on the Sullivan Mystery but with locations and character names altered

• Paul Temple and the Harkdale Robbery (1970), Anthony Head (2007)*

• Paul Temple and the Kelby Affair (1970), Anthony Head (2007)*

• The Geneva Mystery (1971), Toby Stephens (2011)*

• The Curzon Case (1972), Anthony Head (2006)*

• Paul Temple and the Margo Mystery (1986), Toby Stephens (2011)*

• Paul Temple and the Madison Case (1988)

• Paul Temple and the Conrad Case (1989)

(*) Indicates also released as an audiobook on CD, read by Anthony Head or Toby Stephens

Commercial releases

All the complete surviving Paul Temple UK radio serials (with the exception of the 1959 remake of Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case) have been released on CD by the BBC Radio Collection.

The 11 surviving colour episodes of the BBC-TV version of "Paul Temple" featuring Francis Matthews and Ros Drinkwater were released on DVD on 6 July 2009 by Acorn Media UK. A further 5 Black and White episodes are due for release in 2012. Many unreleased colour episodes still exist in the archives of ZDF, the series' German co-producer, with soundtrack in German.

In 2010 Renown Pictures Ltd, new owners of The Butchers Library, released on DVD the feature films Send For Paul Temple, Paul Temple Returns (a.k.a. 'Bombay Waterfront') and Calling Paul Temple.

In 2011 a box set of all four Paul Temple movies was released in November. The film "Paul Temples Triumph" will be released singly to Renown Club members only early in 2012.

External links

• The Paul Temple File
• Paul Temple
• [3] Anthony Hulme Obituary