Paul Temple and the Lawrence case

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Paul Temple and the Lawrence case is an eight-part radio play from the Paul Temple series by Francis Durbridge , which WDR produced in 1958 and aired for the first time from September 12 to October 31, 1958. The total playing time is 314 minutes.

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The individual episodes of the earlier multi-part series were still provided with separate subtitles. From the Lawrence case onwards, with the exception of the Geneva case , the WDR evidently refrained from doing this.

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The writer and private detective Paul Temple has retired to Downburgh on the English east coast with his wife Steve in order to be able to work on his new novel in peace. But some people seem to be watching the couple. During a boat trip, they are shot at from a cliff , and their skipper, Bob Gardner, is slightly injured. Only a week later, Bob had a fatal accident when he and the old fisherman Salty West tried to save a dog on a steep wall.

Hardly back in London , the Temples expected their friend Sir Graham Forbes from Scotland Yard . The daughter of the head of counterintelligence, Sir Carlton Ross, Sylvia, has apparently been kidnapped. Most recently she dated a young man named Brian Dexter, who later claims to have her dropped her on her doorstep. When Temple asked Dexter, he said that they had previously been to a dance hall where Sylvia gave the director of the dance band Johnny Tiko a wish list for a hit. Tiko confirms this, but his wife Linda claims, when she believes her husband is not being observed, that the note said "Mister Clive Lawrence, Hotel Schweizer Hof, Zermatt". The next morning, Paul receives a letter from Mary Gardner from her brother Bob in the accident, which contains exactly the same information.

Paul Temple suspects that a certain Max Burford may have observed Steve in Downburgh and therefore see him with his wife in Bray , near Maidenhead . Steve, however, is quite certain that Burford could not have been the man he was looking for, despite a certain unmistakable resemblance. Brian Dexter tells Temple that he met Sylvia Ross and her father at the Hotel Schweizer Hof in Zermatt . Steve recognizes the otherwise dingy and unshaven Salty West from Downburgh in an elegantly dressed man in the passenger seat of a large Rolls-Royce. Scotland Yard finds out that the car was owned by Dr. Ernest de Silva heard.

In the middle of the night, Johnny ordered Tiko Temple to Kensington because he wanted to tell him something important about Sylvia Ross. But instead of Tiko he meets Mary Gardner, who is gunned down from a moving car. Her last words to Steve were: "Take care of your handbag." When inspector Vosper questioned Tiko that night, he denied having called Temple.

Dr. de Silva's chief Barker denies having been to Maidenhead with his boss's car and therefore doesn't seem to know any Salty West. That same evening, the Polish captain Schikowski fished Barker's body out of the Thames . In his wallet there are six photographs of Steve with a specific handbag. Shortly afterwards, the bag is exchanged for a similar-looking model in which a firing device has been installed. The temples barely escape the attack.

Max Burford is convinced that the man who watched Steve in Downburgh was his cousin Don Freeman. He tells Paul that he happened to witness a phone call in which Freeman was addressed as Clive Lawrence and that he said to a man named Tiko, "You can rest assured, she's on the Isle of Skye ." When questioned Tiko denies ever hearing from Lawrence or Freeman. Vosper has the Isle of Skye searched with a large number of police, but finds no trace of Sylvia Ross.

When the Temples are back in Downtown Pittsburgh, they accidentally discover in the bay at anchor the yacht Isle of Skye , which Julie de Silva heard the wife of the ophthalmologist. Paul asks Brian Dexter, who appears to be a frequent guest on the yacht, to introduce him to Mrs. de Silva. Temple learns from fisherman Stan Walters that Salty West appears to have plenty of money, even though he hardly works.

In the bar of their hotel, Steve meets the Tikos, who obviously give false information about the reason for their stay in Downburgh. Freeman and Dr. de Silva seem to be in Downburgh. Shortly afterwards, Salty West calls Paul and asks him to come home because he has something important to say. When the Temples arrive, his house is on fire and Salty is seriously injured on the ground. He hands Temple Steve's earrings that were in her purse. Before he can say anything about Bob Gardner's mysterious accident, he passes out. In the ambulance, shortly before his death, he said to Inspector Ivor: "Tell Temple there is no Mr. Lawrence, that was a trick by ..."

Sir Graham Forbes comes to Downburgh and reports to the Temples that Sylvia Ross has suddenly reappeared at home. She gives very implausible information about her whereabouts since she disappeared. She doesn't want to know anything about a kidnapping.

When Dexter picks up the Temples with a small dinghy to the Isle of Skye , they are attacked by a motorboat. The boat capsizes. Shortly before drowning, Paul is rescued by fishermen and taken to the Isle of Skye , where Steve is already located. Dexter can be recovered from a fishing boat. Steve happened to hear about a Roger Townley on the yacht through Mrs. de Silva, in whose affair de Silva is said to have interfered. The next day, the Temples learned from Ivor that he was a long-sought criminal who ran a ring of diamond smugglers in Amsterdam . For some time now the diamond and drug trade in England has increased significantly. Forbes suspects Townley was behind it. The Gardner and Salty West siblings appear to have worked for the organization.

Temple learns that the young Mary Chepstow has been hired by Johnny Tiko for his orchestra. The girl was friends with a certain Andy Cross, who took his own life over a year ago. He was one of the helpers in the organization, then had remorse and saw no other way out.

Inspector Ivor finds the body of the murdered Townley between Downburgh and Felixstowe . Temple assumes that it was Townley who steered the motorboat and that Julie de Silva was angry with her husband who happened to be aboard for rescuing Steve from the water. Townley erroneously assumed that the Temples only came to Downburgh because of him to put an end to his trade.

In a hotel, the Temples hold a cocktail party to which everyone involved in the case is invited. Paul explains to those in attendance that Sylvia Ross disappeared from the scene just to divert his attention from Downburgh and the organization. Therefore, Linda Tiko Temple referred to the alleged Clive Lawrence in Zermatt. But Mary Gardner gave Temple a forged letter from her brother, who had been killed by Townley, with the same information and thus redirected the investigation back to Downburgh. A key member, whom Temple refers to as Mister X, then took over the leadership of the gang, ultimately killing Roger Townley. When Brian Dexter feels exposed, he draws a gun and jumps out the window. After a wild chase, Dexter falls into the Thames with his car.

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Remarks

The radio play was first produced by the BBC in 1956 under the title Paul Temple and the Lawrence Affair . The Temple couple were voiced by Peter Coke and Marjorie Westbury .

After Paul Temple and the Gregory affair in 1949, this is probably the seventh multi-part series that WDR and its predecessor NWDR Cologne produced in its Paul Temple series. The ARD radio play archive, however, has another multi-part series entitled A case for Paul Temple from 1950, which is said to be the Valentin case . The WDR in Cologne could not confirm this information on request.

Jürgen von Manger, who has been best known for his fictional character Adolf Tegtmeier since the early 1960s, can be heard here in a supporting role as Captain Schikowski with a Polish accent. The ARD radio play archive shows a total of 23 radio plays in which it was heard. But that was his only appearance in the Paul Temple series.

Publications

References

  • Radio play (plot)
  • The internet database of the ARD radio play archive, accessed on February 6, 2011 (all information about the production).