Paul Temple - British Paul Temple Radio Serials

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.