Crime novelist and detective Paul Temple made his first appearance on BBC Radio in 1938. He inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats – a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Temple’s help with his latest tricky case.

The radio serials proved so popular that Francis Durbridge was inspired to write a succession of novels featuring the smooth sleuth.

After meeting the actress Iris Archer, Paul Temple writes a play for her. She is thrilled, but before the opening she disappears to France. So Temple is surprised when she turns up at an inn where he is holidaying in Scotland. Abridged reading.

Crime novelist and detective Paul Temple made his first appearance on BBC Radio in 1938