Francis Durbridge - Work For Television

Work For Television

Between 1952 and 1980 Durbridge wrote 17 TV serials for the BBC. Until 1959 they were shown under the umbrella title "A Francis Durbridge Serial" which was then changed to "Francis Durbridge Presents". Versions were also made in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Even after Durbridge stopped writing, some serials were re-made in the '80s and '90s.

The Scarf was a six-part serial starring Stephen Murray and Donald Pleasence and was aired by the BBC in February and March 1959. The theme music is The Girl from Corsica by Trevor Duncan. There was uproar in Germany in 1962 when comedian Wolfgang Neuss revealed in a newspaper who would turn out to be the murderer in the last episode of a German version called Das Halstuch.

In the 1960-61 The World of Tim Frazer was broadcast as an 18-episode serial featuring three adventures starring Jack Hedley in the title role. They attracted almost 80% of all TV-viewers – partly because, at that time, many European countries had one TV station each.

In sixities and seventies, the mini-series written by Durbridge were among the most popular in Italy. They were played by the most important italian theatrical actors of that age, among which Aroldo Tieri, Giuliana Lojodice, Nando Gazzolo, Ugo Pagliai, Luigi Vannucchi.

In the mid-1960s, mini-series based on the Paul Temple novels appeared on TV in Europe, especially in Britain and Germany. The first 52 episodes of the 64-part 1969-1971 television series was the first international television co-production. It was made by the BBC with the Germany's ZDF. Paul Temple was played by British actor Francis Matthews and Ros Drinkwater played Steve.

The colour episodes of Paul Temple were re-run on UK Gold in its formative years. In July 2009 Acorn Media are releasing the existing colour episodes on DVD Format. These were cleared at the BBFC on 17 March 2009.