Paul Temple and Steve
Radio 4's revival of the much-loved detective of days gone by was terrific, full of atmospheric detail and suprisingly gripping
Paul Temple and Steve (pictured), revived in a crisp new production (Radio 4, Friday), features Temple, an amateur sleuth and crime fiction writer with a brilliantly mild catchphrase – "by Timothy" – for moments of note. "By Timothy," he says to his wife and sleuthing partner, Steve, as they come to the end of a disastrous waltz, "I thought it was a one-step".
The immensely popular original radio series ran from 1938 to 1969, and this revival takes a story from 1947, full of brilliant atmospheric close-ups on sounds – the clunk of a heavy lighter being flicked opened; the exhalation of cigarette smoke – and teensy details you know are going to be significant. It's a classly period piece, all clipped accents, glamour and a smoking and drinking count to rival Mad Men. Great fun and surprisingly gripping.
Fun and gripping the World Cup promises to be, but I'm not sure classy's the right epithet for some of World Cup Breakfast (Five Live, Friday). Nicky Campbell decided to join some South Africans chanting in Johannesburg about their team winning the competition. "Oh no you won't!", he yelled. "You won't even qualify from your group! South Africa – no chance!" Shelagh Fogarty, back in London, warned her co-host: "I suspect you may get chinned by the end of the day".
This is a new production, faithfully recorded on old microphones to get the right sound, played entirely straight by Crawford Logan as Paul and Gerda Stevenson as his wife Steve. In the original, Paul was played by Kim Peacock, Steve by Marjorie Westbury and their creator, Francis Durbridge, made their adventures utterly enchanting within that shivering threadbare postwar reality. Paul and Steve had a manservant. They went to nightclubs. Steve wore pretty hats. The worst imaginable threat to national security was Dr Belasco, mastermind of an international gang of black-marketeers.
Foreigners, gangs and the black market were all top scares back in 1947. Dr Belasco wouldn’t scare anyone nowadays. Yet the Durbridge world, when a Scotland Yard commissioner would seek the help of a gentleman ’tec like Paul, is still a magical hideaway, radio’s equivalent of old black-and-white films. Where else would you meet a couple who can drive away without noticing there’s a body in the back of their car? Wrong note: only Americans said cigarette in those days. We said cigarette. Bliss note: was there ever a better signature tune than Vivian Ellis’s Coronation Scot?
This is the first 3 episodes of 8. The rest will be posted as they are broadcast and become available
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There are other sets for Paul Temple. This is just the latest, but the others are here on this group also.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick
There you go Bob, Completed in a high bitrate. Sorry I deleted your comment, I deleted my own and somehow yours went with it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick
You both are welcome. The rest of the eight are to be broadcast between now and August some time. The rest will appear after BBC broadcasts them and I find them.---------------------------------------------------Rick
Replies
Thanks.
I got episodes 1-6 from someone years ago, but I needed 7 and 8.
There are other sets for Paul Temple. This is just the latest, but the others are here on this group also.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rick
Thanks for sharing.