Adventures of Paul Temple, The

Paul Temple, socialite and amateur sleuth, and his glamorous and intuitive wife Steve provided UK listeners with first-rate detective radio serials from 1938 into the present. The stories were the creation of Francis Durbridge, who scripted the BBC productions. The original shows, which ran from 1938 through 1968, were produced by Martyn C. Webster. Paul and Steve inhabit a sophisticated world of cocktails and fast cars, frequently called in to help solve crimes by Sir George Forbes of Scotland Yard. At first their adventures were only broadcast on the Midland service of the BBC; after the second serial they were broadcast nationally. Paul was first played by Hugh Morton, followed over the years by Carl Bernard, Richard Williams, Barry Morse, Howard Marion Crawford, Kim Peacock and Peter Coke. The first Steve was played by Bernadette Hodgson; Marjorie Westbury took over in the fifth serial and played the part in every serial up through 1968. The radio serials spawned novelizations, novels by Durbridge, four films (Send For Paul Temple 1946, Calling Paul Temple 1948, Paul Temple's Triumph 1950, Paul Temple Returns 1952), two TV series and a comic strip. Although the early serials are lost, ten serials survived and are available from the BBC. In 2006 the BBC brought Paul Temple back on Radio 4, a new production of the 1947 Sullivan Mystery using the original script, vintage sound effects, music, microphones and reproduced 1940s upper-class accents.