PAUL TEMPLE AGAIN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 400, 21 February 1947, Page 22

PAUL TEMPLE AGAIN

A New Serial from the BBC THE start of another serial play about Paul Temple is always good news for admirers of Francis Durbridge’s novelist-detective, and Temple fans will find that "A Case for Paul Temple" gets off to a flying start when 2YA broadcasts the first instalment at 10.0 p.m. Wednesday, February 26. Temple is called in by Scotland Yard to help track down a mysterious figure known onty as "Valentine" who is behind a big drug-trafficking organisation. He has hardly taken over the case before "Valentine" makes an attempt on his life, and after that the chase is on. The part of Paul Temple is taken in this serial by Howard Marion-Craw-ford-his first appearance in the part-and Marjorie Westbury once more, plays *is wife. Martyn C. Webster, who has been in-charge of all the Temple serials,

‘* the producer, ard he has written the following article

(sent to us by the

BBC)

about Paul Temple as he has known him:

copy of the journal of the Netherlands MRadio, dated 1940, just before the German invesion. Its front cover announced the first of a new series of adventures of the famous detective "Paul Viaanderen"-no other than my old friend Paul Temple with a Dutch alias -and the sight of that six-year-old illustration reminded me of the quite startling success of ths radio character oD other day I turned up a between the time he made his first appearance for the BBC and his latest series of adventures, "A Case for Paul Temple," which has been recorded by the London Transcription Service. Paul Temple has broken a good many tecords in his time. To begin with, he was the first detective of fict on created specially for radio. Francis Durbridge wrote the first scripts in 1937 when I was producing et the BBC’s Midland Regional studios at Birmingham, and though we both felt we were on to something pretty good in the way of enterta nment, it was a shock to us to discover within a week of the first instalment that we were on to something terrific. In five days, 7,500 letters poured into Broadcasting House at Birmingham. Many of them were addressed to Temple himself and they ranged from letters -with coronets on the envelope to nearly illiterate scrawls. When I told the BBC’s Programme Correspondence Department in London about the flood they thought I’d got my figures wrong. A response Ike that to just another thriller serial simply didn’t happen. I proved that it did by bundling up the whole 7,500 and sending them down to London. / \ After that it was quite clear that Paul Temple had come to stay, and as one series has followed ahother (this one you are going to hear is the sixth) Durbr dge’s creation became a top-liner in Britain, the Commonwealth, and the

U.S.A, as well as in several European countries, until the German occupation cut him off the air. The Players There have been a good many changes in the cast since the first series went on the ait, of course, In fact, only one of the. original "old gang" remainsLester Mutidtt, who has played Sir Graham Forbes of Scotland Yard, from the beginning. With Francis Durbridge and myself he can claim to be one of the three Temple Aboriginals. Paul Temple has been played by four actors -Hugh Morton (who shows his versatility by playing Sam Fairfechan, the Welshman, in. ITMA), Carl Bernard, Barry Morse, end now Howard MarjonCrawford, who takes over the part n "A Case for Paul Temple.’ Howard, by the way, is a grendson of that fine romantic author F. Marion-Crewford, and he has inherited a good deal of his grandfather’s romantic streak. There have been two Steves (Paul Temple’s attractive. and competent wife). They are Bernadette Hodgson, now a BBC announcer at Birmingham, and that versatile actress Marjorie Westbury. Marjorie is an amezng person, She sings as well as she acts, speaks several languages, and anyone who wants to see an example of her handiwork will find on the wall of my office a most beautiful piece of embroidery that she just turned out between whiles in the studio, Whodunit? But-let’s come back to Temple records. I think I am right in saying that these are the only seriafs where none of the cast knows who the v llain is until they actually meet in the studio to rehearse the final episode of a series. Up till then only three people are in the secret----Francis Durbridge, myself, and (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) my secretary who types the stencils at the last minute and brings the duplicated copies to the studio herself so that there shall be no leakage. For there are a sweepstake and quite a few side-bets on the result, and I believe my secretary is entertained lavishly by hopeful punters in the cast. To her eternal credit, she has never spilled the beans yet.