Francis Durbridge

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Francis Henry Durbridge ( listening ? / I ) (born  November 25, 1912 in Hull , Yorkshire , †  April 11, 1998 in London ) was a British writer , theater , radio play and screenwriter for television crime novels . Audio file / audio sample

biography

Francis Durbridge's Grave (2015)

The son of a Woolworth manager studied Old English and Economics at the University of Birmingham and then worked for a short time as a stockbroker , but soon turned to writing. His first play, Promotion , appeared as early as 1933 . In 1940 he married Norah Elizabeth Lawley, with whom he had two sons.

Durbridge worked for the BBC for 30 years as a radio play writer and published 35 novels, mostly utilizing the material from radio plays already broadcast by radio stations and in some cases also collaborating with other authors.

He had his breakthrough with his fictional detective writer and hobby detective Paul Temple . This resulted in an extensive series of radio plays between 1938 and 1968, which was shaped primarily by radio drama speakers Peter Coke as Temple and Marjorie Westbury as his wife, the journalist Louise, who mainly appears under her nom de plume Steve Trent. In the German version, René Deltgen spoke between 1949 and 1966 and Paul Klinger in 1968 as the title figure. The role of the wife Steve was predominantly voiced by Annemarie Cordes .

Between 1946 and 1952, four feature films were also made based on the previously made radio plays. At the end of the 1960s, Durbridge licensed the literary character to the BBC, which from 1969 turned the stories into a 52-part television series , 39 of which were filmed in the first international co-production in television history, together with ZDF . The main role in the series was played by the English actor Francis Matthews . Ros Drinkwater played the role of Steve (often in German dubbing: Stiefelchen ) . The theme music was by Ron Grainer .

Further novels and films were also made around the characters Tim Frazer and Harry Brent . Many of his novels were filmed for television in Europe with nationally known actors and were more successful than his novels.

In Germany Durbridge was best known to the as street sweeper designated multi-part television thrillers The Others (1959), The time has come (1960), The bandana (1962), Tim Frazer (1963), Tim Frazer: The case Salinger (1964), The Keys (1965), Melissa (1966), A Man Called Harry Brent (1968), Like a Flash (1970), and The Knife (1971), all of which had ratings of almost 90%. However, such values ​​were mainly due to the fact that the television viewer only had one ARD program and later the ZDF . The German composers Peter Thomas and Hans Jönsson wrote congenial music for a large number of Durbridge films and radio plays .

There was great excitement among the German public when the cabaret artist Wolfgang Neuss revealed in an advertisement for his own film ( Comrade Münchhausen ) who the murderer in the television adaptation of the novel Das Halstuch was. He later admitted that he had only guessed the killer.

Durbridge's seventh and final play, Deep in the Night , premiered in London in 1991. It was the last to be implemented as a radio play by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) in 2000. Film composer Martin Böttcher wrote his only radio play music in the style of the Edgar Wallace films .

media

DVD
  • All German films from 1959 to 1988 have now been released on DVD as a collector's edition by Studio Hamburg. In addition, there is the TV film The Elegant Rotation , which was published in a single publication by Pidax film media in 2017.
  • The doll (two-part, released in October 2013 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • The track with the lipstick ( The Passenger , three-part, released in May 2016 by Pidax film media Ltd.)
  • Interpol calls Berlin (movie, released in July 2014 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • Paul Temple: The Hunt for Z (Movie, released on September 11, 2015 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • Paul Temple and the Marquis Case (movie, released October 2, 2015 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • Paul Temple and the Green Finger (movie, released in November 2015 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • Paul Temple: Who is Rex? (Movie, released in December 2015 by Pidax film media ltd.)
  • The Teckman Case (movie, released December 2014 by Filmjuwelen)
  • Tim Frazer chases the mysterious Mister X (movie, released by Filmjuwelen)
  • Who is Mr. Hogarth? ( Breakaway: The Family Affair , six-part, will be released on Pidax film in December 2019)
Videos
  • The scarf. EuroVideo - EAN 4009750182536 (all parts cut together to form a complete film), VHS video, 206 minutes
Radio plays
Further media on the Paul Temple page.

More radio plays

literature

Videobiography

  • A man named Francis Durbridge . A four-part interview with Nicholas Durbridge about his famous father Francis Durbridge. 4 × 25 ', contained on the DVDs Paul Temple - Jagd auf Z (Pidax film media, 1st part: The next Edgar Wallace - Life and working methods of Francis Durbridge), Paul Temple and the Marquis case ( released between September and December 2015 ) ( Pidax film media, 2nd part: popularity and perfection ), Paul Temple - The green finger (Pidax film media, 3rd part: Paul Temple ), Paul Temple - Who is Rex? (Pidax film media, part 4: memorabilia from a long career )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Durbridge, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Durbridge, Francis Henry (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English crime novelist
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingston upon Hull , England
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1998
Place of death London , England