Paul Temple Television

Paul Temple made the transition to television in 52 fifty minute episodes produced between 1969 and 1971 by the BBC and Taurus Film of Germany in the BBC’s first international co-production.

Francis Durbridge had held Paul Temple back from television for many years – “I wanted to hold off putting Temple on television, because I wanted to establish myself as a television writer quite apart from the character of Temple. And having done that – I’d had many offers for Paul Temple from various sources – I felt now was the time to put him on.”

Starring Francis Matthews as Temple and Ros Drinkwater as Steve the first 26 episodes allegedly cost £630,000, then the biggest budget for a crime series in BBC history.

Many of the episodes featured attractive overseas locations. However unlike the radio serials, each television episode was a separate story written by different writers and Francis Durbridge did not write any of the episodes. As a result there were no trademark Durbridge cliffhangers.

For a new generation of Temple fans the series was attractive and glamorous and in Germany proved popular with an audience of 25 million viewers.