Educated at Bradford Grammar School in Yorkshire, he was encouraged to write by his English teacher, and continued to do so whilst studying English at Birmingham University. After graduating in 1933, he worked for a short time as a stockbroker's clerk, before selling a radio play to the BBC at the age of 21.
In 1938, he created the character Paul Temple, a crime novelist and detective. With Steve Trent, a Fleet Street journalist and later his wife, Temple solved numerous crimes in the glamorous world of the leisured middle-classes, first on radio and, from 1969 until 1971, in a 64-part television series. Durbridge forged a successful career as a writer for the stage, with seven plays, the last of which, Sweet Revenge, was written in 1991.
He married Norah Lawley, with whom he had two sons, in 1940. He died at his home in Barnes, London in 1998.
The first Paul Temple radio serial was Send for Paul Temple, broadcast in eight episodes on the BBC Midland Regional Programme from 8 April 1938. Hugh Morton played Paul and Steve was played by Bernadette Hodgson.
In 1939 Carl Bernard took over the part of Paul, and after the war he was played by a succession of different actors: Barry Morse (1945), Howard Marion-Crawford (1946), and Kim Peacock (1946-1951). Peter Coke took over the part in the 1954 serial, Paul Temple and the Gilbert Case, and played the part until the serials came to an end.
Marjorie Westbury took over the part of Steve from the fifth serial, Send for Paul Temple Again (1945), although she had a small part in the fourth serial, Paul Temple Intervenes (1942). She played Steve until the serials came to an end. To many people, Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury are most firmly identified with Paul and Steve.
The original signature tune was taken from Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, with incidental music taken from the works of other composers, including Tintagel by Sir Arnold Bax. The signature tune was later changed to Coronation Scot by Vivian Ellis.
The BBC shipped recordings of the serials to other Commonwealth countries where they were repeated long after they had finished in their home market.
Repeating the recordings on the BBC7 digital speech channel revived interest in the serials in the early 2000s. The BBC then released all the complete recordings known to survive on CDs and cassettes.
On Monday 7 August 2006, BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first episode of a new production of Paul Temple and the Sullivan Mystery a lost 1947-produced serial. The re-creation used the original 1947 script, vintage sound effects, music, microphones, and carefully reproduced 1940s upper class accents. Paul Temple was played by Crawford Logan and Steve by Gerda Stevenson. This production was repeated on Radio 4 from mid-June 2007. Listeners complained because the repeat was scheduled at the same time of day as the original broadcast. BBC Audio and Music head Jenny Abramsky told 6 July 2007's Radio 4's listeners' complaints programme, Feedback, that more repeats were inevitable because the level at which Parliament had set the television licence fee – the BBC's principal source of income programme income – made spending cuts vital.[1]
In Germany
Throughout the 1960s German radio adapted twelve Paul Temple serials. Like the BBC originals, each part ended with a cliffhanger, making them "Strassenfeger" ("street-clearers"), which were so popular as to leave the streets deserted. The actors were of national renown, with Paul Temple played by Luxembourg-born René Deltgen, and supported by Gustav Knuth, Paul Klinger and others. All of these German serials are, like the BBC originals, available on CD as audio-books.
In 1967, The European Broadcasting Union invited Durbridge to write an original radio serial for the international market - La Boutique - which was broadcast in more than fifteen countries, and in a variety of languages.
In the mid-1960s, several mini-series based on Paul Temple novels appeared on TV in Europe, especially in England and Germany. The first 52 episodes of the 64-part 1969 - 1971 television serieswas notable for being 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 – whose film and television credits included Prince of Darkness and the voice of Captain Scarlet)– and Ros Drinkwater played Steve.
Several series were made in Europe from other Durbridge's novels. They ran under the title Francis Durbridge Presents... in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany and featured other characters including Tim Frazer in the 1960-1961 The World of Tim Frazer, an 18-episode serial featuring three adventures[2] starring Jack Hedley in the title role) and Harry Brent. They attracted almost 80% of all TV-viewers – not least because, at that time, many European countries had one TV station each). 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 part of six-parter Das Halstuch ("The Scarf"), after the BBC already had already shown its own version in the UK in February and March 1959.
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.
Durbridge wrote several Paul Temple novels in collaboration with John Thewes, Douglas Rutherford and Charles Hatten – and those he wrote with Rutherford appeared under the pen name "Paul Temple," making the fictional writer "real."
